Legacy of blood
by Little-Firestar84
Summary: A man is murdered in Los Angeles  with Red John's MO. Is it a message for  Jane, the work of a copycat, or maybe Red John finally made a mistake? And what's the thin red Line connecting Jane and detective Anne Donovan?  T to be safe,  Jisbon, complete
1. prologue

Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just **_"write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed bu the light of reason..." _**(No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one fo the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...).

Mega, super, ultra Author's note...: I have the evil that men do on hiatus since this summer,I'm well aware of that. And I'm terribly late with the translation of my fanfics from English into Italian (I still have to understand how is possible that I think and write in English, and I'm pretty unable to make my stories made sense into Italian. Mah.), and I'm even terribly late in writing Blackdragon, if you know what I'm talking about... but here I am, with a new multichapter. the rating is T for security measures, even if I'm not sure I'll ever need it, and, just for the record:

this is dedicated to the talented PetiteJ, nice writer and amazing artist of the mentalist, and mostly JISBON, universe. this story took life a while ago via MSN, we ended up discussing this possibility, and I ended up telling her "I think I'll write soemthing about it, you know?" and so, here we are!

* * *

PROLOGUE

Detective Anne Charlotte "AC" Donovan enters in her house on the sandy beach of Los Angeles, slamming the door against the wall, careless and quite furious, pinching the bridge of her nose once gotten rid of her omnipresent Persol sunglasses. She walks at closed eyes without bothering to turn the lights on, too tired for even doing so. Besides, there's the simple fact that she has spend the last 10 years or so in this place, whenever she wasn't busy with work or trying to live what she defines as a "sorry excuse of a life", and in the last 4 years she has practically been only at work or at home. She knows where everything is, she can find everything at closed eyes, and given her slightly O.C.D. about order and cleaning, she doesn't have to be worried about falling on something.

Besides, the only thing she wants to do right now is getting rid of the clothes that smell a bit too much like decaying cadavers. And maybe, after the last shower, calling a certain someone who had told her he was going to give her an hand, but apparently found something more… interesting to do then helping his best friend out.

"Sweet Lord, I've never asked Brian anything, and the only time I ask him to come over to take few clothes for me to bring over at work, does he bother to? No! Geez, that man is unbelievable, next time he dares to ask me something, I'll know how to answer!" Like her day hasn't been enough bad. The last four years have been heel, but today… she has never asked Brian anything, even if he has been the one telling he wanted to be there for her. Really, even in her darkest hour, she hasn't asked her almost best friend a single thing. Just today, a change of clothes, since hers smelt like the rotten bodies she has examinee during her shift at the LAPD Crime Lab.

But, after the first steps, she falls upon something on the pavement and, from the feeling of the material against her hand as she skims over it, she'd say it's her coffee table. She immediately understands something, everything, isn't how it is supposed to be; even at closed eyes, she knows someone has been there, and it's definitely not the person she has asked to go there.

Without even thinking, out of reflexes, she takes hold of her Glock, exploring carefully the whole place, without turning the lights on and regretting her comment about Brian, made aloud as soon as she has entered- a clear giveaway, if the intruder is still there, waiting for her to come back.

Someone has been there, someone has gone through her things, and this someone could still be there. There isn't a single thing in its place. _Great, thieves, really what I needed to make this day better. Like going though rotting corpses hadn't been enough… _

And here she thought that the neighborhood was secure. That had been the main reason her mother had brought that place, more than a decade before, and it had seemed that things were still like back then. The only thing Anne did, had been updating the security system, mostly for her personal security after a couple of guys she had sent behind bars swore vendetta against her… _Guess the fancy new security system isn't so fancy at all…_

But when she reaches her bedroom on the first floor, she realizes that she has been wrong, that everything she has believed in after she has entered in the house was wrong, because she sees a scene she isn't ready to witness, even with almost 9 years of duty…

The body isn't the first thing she sees as she opens the door, though. A red smiley face is, painted on the wall, and the smell and the color tell her it has been made in the blood of Brian Carlson, her best friend, who's on her bed, eyes open in terror, his neck cut, blood everywhere…

It's in that moment, as she escapes in the security of her bathroom, hands shaking as she tries to call 911, that Anne realizes that as much as she hated that place and what it meant with its memories, she'll never hate it as much as today….


	2. 1

Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just **_"write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed by the light of reason..." _**(No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one of the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...).

By the way, few of you may recognize the male Detective who's "working" the case on the LAPD side is Detective Charlie Crews. For the ones of you who don't know him, he is, well, was, the lead character in the LIFE tv-shows. Obviously, if I should decide for t ime-line for Life, I'd say it's post the show finale, without considering all the troubles that the season finale may have brought...

It will not be a real cross-over, because Crews will only make an apparence here and there, and just few things of the shows will be talked about so, don't worry, I didn't do a mistake with this one putting only under Mentalist!

* * *

CHAPTER 1:

"That's not a copycat" As soon as he sees the scene before his eyes, Jane understands that what they are dealing right now is the real deal and not simply a copycat like they've been hoping for. What both he and Lisbon doesn't understand, though, it's the sudden change of M.O. Until now, Red John has killed males only when they were in the way, were they witnesses or investigators, NEVER has he chosen directly a male as victim.

Of course, there's the chance that Brian Carlson just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jane hasn't met the owner of the quite big but still nice and tasty estate yet, the 29 years old Forensic Investigator Detective Anne Donovan, SID, but from what he has overheard the uniforms saying, this guy was here by chance, because she had asked him to take and bring her a couple of things. As he said, wrong place, wrong time: he is doing a favor to his friend, too bad Red John has chosen her as his next victim. The killer is at her place, waiting for her to show up, but, instead, the guy arrives, sees something he wasn't supposed to see, and something has to be done about it.

Or maybe, Red John is trying to send them a message they haven't understood, or found, yet, even if it doesn't explain why choosing Los Angeles, and why this guy. Or was it really Donovan the target? Or maybe, it's Donovan the one who is supposed to know something, or to get the message. Maybe the detective stumbled upon something Red John related and she doesn't even know it yet…

Besides, there's still that little fact that someone probably Red John himself, went through her things. He has never done it before, at least, not openly; if he has taken "memories" from his victims, they've never found out. Nothing of importance was missing from his house, Jane remembers, focused on the man covered in blood on the iron bed, but what about the small things? Back then, he didn't put too much attention in the small things, never cared too much about them, and he was too broken to even try to see of anything of No importance at all was missing…

"Jane, I'm going to talk with Miss Donovan, and I want you with me, but only if you swear you'll behave." With a hand on the small of his back, Lisbon brings him back to reality, while guiding him outside, away from Carlson's body, the one that's plaguing Jane's mind, a mind where the man's dead body has been added to a long list of dead bodies on a bloody pyre. "Jane?" Lisbon calls him, softly, almost a whisper, still a hand on the small of his back, as she sees that he isn't proceeding, but has stopped to stare in front of them, studying something, deeply, lost in his own world: sitting uncomfortably on the sand, still shaking, with a mug of something in her hands, between two detectives, stands the woman they assume being Anne Donovan, the one they were looking for all along.

She is rather young, Jane realizes, probably in her late twenties or early thirties, and her whole demeanor is screaming that her life hasn't been exactly all roses until now: a difficult childhood with a difficult relationship with her parents, she has put herself completely in the studies first and the job later, being consumed by them. She has almost no life outside work. She made it to detective in record time, and has decided even before being a cop that she'd be a captain, not because she wanted to, but because she wanted to prove people that she could make it. What hits the blonde man the most, though, is the way she is absently playing with her empty left ring finger, rolling something that isn't there, a clear sign that a marriage has been ended, and that she hasn't liked it. he'd like to get closer and closer, study the hand, see if the skin is paler or of the sun has covered the thin white line, to understand when she could have lost the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

When she closes her eyes and takes a big breath, pitching the bridge of her nose, he grins a bit, realizing that right now Detective Donovan is mentally going through all her open cases to avoid screaming and collapsing in tears in front of her colleagues. The woman hates seeming weak, she rather prefer letting people believe she is a cold, icy bitch. He'll remember himself to compliment her as soon s they'll be alone, the girl is a rather good actress, almost as good as him. That's probably why he can see she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"Miss Donovan, we'd like a couple of words…"

"She is **_DETECTIVE_** Donovan" the male detective hisses at Lisbon, almost scaring her, with a glint of anger in his eyes. His voice, or maybe his outburst, seems enough to awake the woman from her reverie, bringing her back to reality. And it's in that moment that, grinning again, Jane realizes this woman has something in common with Lisbon as well. She may be as professional as Lisbon, when she wants to, or at least, that's what her answer to the male detective seems to indicate. And it says a lot, because, even if it's clear they they obviously know each other and have been intimate (probably still are) and that the man still has feeling for her, Donovan addresses him with his surname, and coldly…

"Detective Crews, I'd rather prefer if you could let them do their job, and come back to yours, which isn't, last time I checked, harassing the CBI" She stands, looking at him, facing him, and they remain in silence, until "Crews" breaks it, maybe not in pain, even if Jane can sees that there's been a lot in his life, but clearly taken by surprise by her reaction, like he had expected her to run in his arms calling him her savior or something like that. _Clearly, they haven't been intimate in quite a while, but he'd still want them to be._

"Whatever you need, you know where to find me" When he walks past her to leave, his fingers skim over hers for few seconds, and Donovan shivers, whatever it is because she misses the contact or because she feels uncomfortable with it, Jane doesn't know yet, even if, seeing how she practically kicked the man, is probably the second option. Whatever there was between these Donovan and Crews, it's over for her, even if Crews seems to want to change her mind about it.

And, even if he has promised Lisbon to behave, he really can't help himself, so, when the red haired, blue eyed detective, clad in what Jane is pretty sure is a brand new Calvin Klein suite like his own old ones, walks past him, he has to stop Crews and speak his mind…

"You have strong feelings for **_DETECTIVE_** Donovan, you probably think you may even be in love with her, but she doesn't want to explore whatever is going on between you two. Something is holding her back, and it's not only the fact that she is clearly not over her husband yet. I'd say you, my friend, are the problem. An age thing… no, I don't think it's because you're almost ten years older than her, and it's not even because you're superior, because from what I saw, your partner was questioning her, so, even if this miss here is younger than you, you are still junior detective, meaning you're not Donovan's superior. I'm still sure you're the problem here, though, and from the interaction between you two, it only may be that or Donovan is scared of you, or she is scared of getting emotionally hurt by you. She thinks she'd be second best to you, probably an ex wife now married with children who would never abandon her new family for coming back to you even if she knows she did a mistake leaving you in the first place. Or maybe, you're trying to move on after your beautiful partner decided that having an affair with you while she was sleeping with your superior was a bad idea." He pauses, and turns to face Donovan, with gleaming eyes and an amused smirk as he keeps reading the situation "and I'd say, that you are that scared because you've seen something like that with someone close to you, your mother, I'd say, since I haven't seen pictures of any siblings. She probably was in love with a man that put her second, to his job or another person, I don't know yet, but you know it, you saw how she suffered, how she never moved on after that, and you don't want to feel like her, especially for a man you've never been in love with, because that's the real deal. You are attracted to him, but it's just that, attraction, it's physical, and not loving. Tell me, Anne, why do you think you don't deserve to be loved?"

"Ok, pal, we have enough of you…" As Crews gets closer and closer with his fist already in the air, Jane hides behind an already enraged and annoyed Lisbon, while Donovan puts herself between them, hands on Crew's blue shirt, stopping him from moving any further.

"Charlie, let them do their job. It's not any different from when we question a suspect."

"Only an idiot could believe you're a suspect!"

"No, it's not, and of you could stop to think about it for a minute, you'd understand it. Charlie, this is my place. I know the victim. I found the body. I'm a detective, so I could have had access to a certain amount of info in order to make it appear it wasn't my doing but someone else. If you were them, what would you think?" she tells him with force. Ah her statement, Crews doesn't talk any longer, but stands at her side, much to her annoyance, at crossed arms, sending deadly glares at both Jane and Lisbon.

"Detective Donovan, according to the ME, Mister Carlson has been killed this morning between half past seven and 9 o' clock. Do you mind telling us where you were around that time?"

"I was at the Crime Lab" she says, letting it go of Charlie's shirt and turning to face a strictly on the book Agent Lisbon.

"Were you alone?"

"I'll provide you the names of who was with me"

"Good" Lisbon answers, lifting her eyebrows a little at how Donovan seems to say only the strictly necessary "Tell me, Detective, do you know why Mr. Carlson was here this morning and how he managed to enter in your property?"

"Mr. Carlson had a spare key, and he was here because I asked him to. I needed to stay at the crime lab for few hours, and I wanted a fresh change of clothes, which Bobby was happy to bring me."

"You didn't find weird when he didn't show up?"

"It wasn't unusual for him; his attention spark was quite… low. He got easily distracted, especially if he saw something that "took his breath away", like he sued to say"

"And were you one of the things that "took his breath away", Detective? Allowing a man to go through your clothes, through your lingerie…. I wonder if the two of you weren't' intimate, and you aren't hiding something from us."

"Ehm, Lisbon, I hope you'll not get mad, but you are wrong here. Mr. Carlson was gay. He took too much care of himself to be a heterosexual with a vanity complex, and his French manicure, his perfume and his clothes are screaming to me that he was gay" he pauses "Besides, she'd never allow any man to go through her lacy and silk French lingerie, because that's what you wear underneath that formal work clothes, sexy French lingerie, right? It makes you feel more feminine, and, even if you deny it with your whole heart, there's a girl underneath that rock shield."

"Jane! I've been clear, you were supposed to behave and ONLY listen!"

"He is right, though" Donovan says, getting a shocked Lisbon as an answer to her statement "About Bobby, I mean. He was gay"

"From our info, Mr. Carlson was a medical doctor from the upper class, and from what you say he was into men, while you are a heterosexual female detective with state salary. May I ask you how it happened that you were such good friends?"

"Few years ago, Bobby was dating one of our ME. Sometimes the guys from the crime lab hung up with him. Bobby stated getting along. When his boyfriend left for New York, Bobby struck with us and me in particular." Jane can't help but grin, because, really, questioning this woman is amazing. Not only she is a great performer, but she only tells the strictly necessary, and when she adds something more than what it's expected from her, it's only because she is already answering the next question. He has no doubts she is a hell of a cop, probably she is just wasted inside a crime lab, because if she is that good when it comes to her, she probably an unmask someone who's lying just as easily…

"Do you or Mister Carlson have any connection that you are aware of with the Red John case?" he suddenly asks, making Lisbon jumps in surprise. Jane is so calm and professional, he doesn't even seem the same person, and not considering it's a Red John case…

"Well, Bobby was a trauma surgeon, so I don't know how he could have fallen upon something like that, besides, he wasn't very secretive and even when he was trying, and I always spotted him. And me… of all my cases, nothing seems to fit his MO"

"We still like to know what cases you worked and are currently working on. Maybe there' someone with a vendetta against you"

"You think your killer was here waiting for me, but was caught by Bobby instead. You think I was the real victim, because I've stumbled upon something I'm not aware of yet, but that the killer knows it..."

"Detective, Red John already behaved this way; it's not uncommon for him. Maybe you're not aware of what you found yet, but he has the tendency to be aware of this sort of things before us all… we really need to look at those cases, and we'd appreciate your collaboration."

"I'll be more than glad to give you access to all my closed cases and a list of all the guys that I sent behind bars and could be currently out" she snaps at Lisbon, facing her at crossed arms with determination, looking at the CBI agent with deadly and icily blue orbs "but don't think even for a second that I'll handle you freely my open cases. If you think I'll risk some perp being free because someone had access to the case file and could have messed with the evidences, you are wrong"

"As cooperative as it may get, I see. One last thing, Detective" Lisbon says, looking again into Donovan's blue eyes, showing the younger woman she isn't scared or particularly impressed "whoever did this, probably went through your things. Do you already know if something is missing?"

"A shoebox from my room is missing. There were photographs of my parents." As she says so, clearly uneasy and with difficulty, Crews looks at her like for saying "what the…" and Jane immediately notices it.

"We'll need to talk with them, then. If only their pictures are missing, it could mean it's someone who's connected with them, or they may be after them and…"

"It's impossible, Agent Lisbon"

"Detective, I already asked you nicely, don't force me to come to you with a warrant, bring you in or, worse, force your superior to do something about your behavior"

"She lost her mother and I think she doesn't know her father!" Jane exclaims "she doesn't know even his name; she only has few pictures of him. Her mother was ashamed of him, felt badly because she was second best, to work, to another woman, or maybe… maybe, he probably walked between legality and illegality. I'd say Anne never heard about him until her mother was dying"

"Actually, they were part of her will" she pauses, Charlie's hand still on the small of her back, to guide and to encourage, and to give her strength "I'd like to come back to the lab and take my files, if you don't mind"

Donovan leaves, without waiting for a reply and turning back to see the agent and her consultant, no one notices her smiling a little when she sees Lisbon hitting Jane in one arm not so playfully…


	3. 2

Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just **_"write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed by the light of reason..." _**(No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one of the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...).

AND I don't own Life either, since the male Detective who's "working" the case on the LAPD side is Detective Charlie Crews, the lead character in the LIFE tv-shows. (by the way, for those of you who followed Life, this should be a post show finale thing-hence the small thing, last chapter, about Dani Reese being in a relationship with her superior first and Crews later, even if the relationship between Charlie and Dani had been merely suggested by the last sentence, and never shown directly.)

Anyway...thanks a lot to Jisbo4ever, who always takes time to leave a review or two to my things. I'm glad you find it interesting, and that you liked how Lisbon "abused" Jane-there will be at least another scene or two in the whole story about Lisbon abusing Jane, and many, many bantering. When you say you didn't like teh detective0s attitude, were you talking about Crews or Donovan? Crews is a pain, soemtimes he tends to behave a bit like jane even if he is a cop, while Donovan, well, I guess she is only upset, and protective of her own work.I'm in the making of chapter five, for now, even if...well, as my usual, I'm done with the penultimate chapter and i'm working on the last one as well. soemhow, i always knows the beginning and the end of a story, and have problems in fidning what ahs the fill the gap between the two...

and here there is the next installment, with not the cliffhanger (because I really hate them) but quite a suprise (and I nwat to know if you had figured it out!)

* * *

CHAPTER 2

"What can you tell us about a Robert Furlong?"

"He went in for robbery. He was sentenced to 3 years, and he currently is out on parole. But he is a good guy now. Always been, to be honest, it was the wrong company, I guess." Donovan answers Rigsby scrolling her shoulders, already tired of this. They've been going through ALL her cases, open and closed as well, both old and recent (under the Chief's gentle request, and against her and her Captain's will and personal opinion on the fact) for hours now, and she is getting tired and bored, which, considering she just ADORES to work, and would like to survive on work only, says something. Of course, there's the simple and significant fact that the CBI (minus the blonde annoying brat of a consultant called Patrick Jane) seems to be sure that one of those cases may be connected to the Red John investigation, something that Donovan knows for sure isn't that way. She has worked night and day, sweating blood on each file, knows every word, every detail, small or big, and she'd noticed if something wasn't how it was supposed to be, if someone was trying to hide their traces. If one of her cases was the work of a serial killer, she'd know it. And, since she is quite sure that Red John doesn't have to do with one of her cases, she sees this just as a waste of time, hence, she isn't sure how long she'll be able to go on without saying something that will definitely sound not nice.

"And, next one is a Jessica Hewitt…"

"Multiple homicides, she was sentenced to death and is currently into custody while waiting for the execution that should be scheduled… in four months time, if I'm not mistaken."

"Next name is Sasha Newborn… ehy, the sex isn't indicated! Is that a male or a female? I can't even say from the picture!"

"Both, actually- Sasha says is a female, but had never legally changed the gender nor, you know, so for the state we're still talking about a man. And, anyway, he should still be inside."

"Harold Osborn"

"Oh, the psychopath… A series of unrelated murders, his MO was having no MO at all. He is into an asylum"

"Travis Castle?"

"A revision of the process showed that the homicide detective investigating on his case was forced into looking for an easy guilty and decided to frame him: innocent as a newborn child"

"Fanny Fanninon… what sort of name is that?"

"Weird people, I know. I met her parents and they were quite out of their heads. Anyway, she is still inside."

"Desmond Crane?"

"Killed his wife and the young man he assumed was her lover, assumed wrong, let me add. Already executed"

"Thomas Carlisle?"

"He died last year, but this time not by the hands of the state. Guy was out on parole, and decided to keep playing gang member, and three bullets in the back, mafia execution style, has been the result."

"Roland Maria"

"He was able to escape in France before the trail. He has been taken into custody by the local police, but we are still waiting for extradition. That will never arrive, because he is guilty of murder and here he'd be sentenced to death and the French government knows it"

"Detective, do you really remember all your cases and what happened to every one of them?" Instead of answering to Van Pelt, reclining in a chair in the office handled to the CBI, Donovan almost grunts in annoyance, rolling her eyes, gaining an exasperated expression by Cho, Van Pelt and Rigsby, an amused grin by Jane and an eye-roll by Lisbon.

"Why, I mean, don't tell you don't remember something like that!"

"No, we don't" Cho simply answers her, coming back to the papers he was studying before.

"My boss says that the amount of info my mind can storage is almost infinite, and that nothing leaves my mind unless I want it to" Donovan answers with a small smile, that she immediately removes, already feeling guilty for having showed such a feeling during such a time.

"Looks like we found the LAPD Jane, boss" Rigsby tells them, but, looking mostly, to Lisbon. Hearing her agent saying this so amused, she is almost scared. She fears something like that, one Jane she can handle, but two?

"I'm offended, agent Rigsby. I'm a detective sergeant and not a simple consultant like your friend or whatever he is for you here"

"Oh, c'mon detective, I'm sure he didn't mean to offend you. He was comparing you to me, after all."

"You know Jane; sometimes I still ask myself if you are never tired of being so full of yourself"

"Meh, I'm kind of in love with myself. Besides, you'd never change me for anything in the world, woman"

"I'm glad you all love each other, but, could we please, just, for one second, repeat and rewind and…" Donovan says, a bit uneasy, trying to show puppy dog eyes, with not such a good results.

"I'm sorry for the interruption, Detective Donovan; we'll come back to discussing your cases immediately"

"Actually, I was thinking…. I know all the cases I worked on, as your men pointed out, and I'm sure that there's nothing pointing in the red John direction. So, I was thinking that, maybe, while you try to put light on the matter at hand, I could, maybe, just maybe, give a look at a couple of crime scenes…"

"I'm sorry detective, but I can't allow you to, and you should know it."

"Agent Lisbon, you don't know me. You can't say no to me about this. I can't stay without working. I just… I don't know how to do it, ok? And if you don't want me having a nervous breakdown in the middle of this place, you'll allow me to check on a couple of crime scenes, because believe, me without work? It's a nervous breakdown waiting for happen, and it's not a nice thing to see."

"I'm pretty sure you don't work on vacation and free days, detective, so, stop wasting both our time with pointless questions" Lisbon replies her sarcastically, with a fake smile. This woman is pretty unbelievable, she seems unable to stay quiet for too long, especially if she can't concentrate her attention on solving a case. She remembers her of someone… _Oh, yes, Jane. She is worse than him…_

"Last time I took a vacancy it was around four years ago, and about free days… I always end up here doing something, and if I'm not here, I'm at forensic seminaries, doing adjournment or consultancies for the FBI or other crime labs in California. And, please, Agent Lisbon" Donovan tells her, a bit mad "don't behave like you don't know what I'm talking about, because you are exactly like me. Outside work, you probably have close to zero life."

"It's not true! I have a life, and outside work, I…"

"We have something!" Crews pauses as he enters, double checking his surroundings feeling a bit of tension, and it's so weird that Anne almost laughs, because she has never seen Crews so unsure of himself. "Well, you have something, or, actually, I have something, because I do have it now, but nobody has really a single thing, because you cannot owe something and…"

"Crews, drop the Zen and go on, please" she snaps at him with clear exasperation, almost shouting, clearly fuming with rage.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, I always forget how you hate when I go all Zen-ish on you. Actually, Reese hates it as well, and I wonder why, because…"

"Charlie, drop it once and for all, will you!"

"Oh, yeah, sorry, anyway, like I was saying… someone sent a package to the precinct, for you and Mr. Jane. The label is printed with red ink"

"Are we talking about a hand-delivered package or was it in the mail?" Jane smiles, almost grins, looking at Donovan; she is shifting in both posture and behavior from annoying brat to valuable detective in the blink of an eye, behaving like the professional everyone expects her to be. It's even weirder looking at her magically producing a pair of latex gloves from her purse, a set for collecting traces and an evidence bag from her purse. He has told it and he'll say it again, that woman is a walking contrast. "I hope you checked it for any metallic components. I'd rather prefer not dying into an explosion…"

"As you can see from the stamps, it was in the mail and yes, we put it through the metal detector and an x-ray, in order to avoid problems, and it's clear"

"Red John likes particularly playing cat and mouse with me… but I still wonder what he has against Detective Donovan…"

And, under the gaze of the CBI, Donovan, without waiting for permission, opens the envelope, emptying the contents remaining stunned as she studies the almost 200 photographs, checking that everyone is there "Care to explain why he bothered to steal my photographs just to return them?"

Even if in her voice has been a note of humor, it immediately disappears, as Donovan looks at the pictures in trance, taking a big breath, skimming over them delicately with tears fighting to leave her eyes. At her side, she can feels Jane panicking, his breath and his heart erratic as he looks at the same pictures in shock, while Lisbon, she is in front of him, with the most worried expression Anne has ever seen on a person- clearly, whatever Lisbon and Jane are, in the Agent's heart they are much more than simply colleagues or friends

"No, no, no, no, no…" he repeats shaking his head, clearly worried and scared, even, something that makes Lisbon jump. She has never seen Jane this way, never seen him behave this way, and even if it's a Red John case… "It's my fault, it's my fault, it's my fault he is dead…."

"What? It's absurd, we've never met before! Why should a killer obsessed with you hit me and my friends to drive you mad? It doesn't make any sense!"

Jane knees on the soil, and takes a picture of the man and the woman, the people Donovan indicated as her parents, and studies it, looking at the photograph in his right hand, one where, along with the couple, a young boy can be seen in a corner."

"Are those your parents?" he asks, clearly enraged, and even Donovan is scared, for once in her life, at the sound of his voice.

"What? I told you so! Those are my parents!"

"And… you said you don't know your father's identity?"

"Yes, I told you so! My mother never talked about him, and told me he was the love of a summer only in a letter she left me when she died! One of the few things I know it's that he was more than ten years older than her, and that he met her in Santa Barbara!"

"YOU NEVER TALKED ABOUT A BROTHER!" he shouts at her, snapping, the picture he was studying earlier now on the desk "Is this your father, Donovan?"

"Agent Lisbon, I think you should control your men, I don't like the way he is behaving with Detective Donavan!"

"Yes, Detective Crews, Jane, listen to them, you are exaggerating here, why don't you go take a nap somewhere or drink a cup of tea? You are scaring Detective Donovan, and that's the last thing she needs right now…" With her soft voice, Lisbon, a hand on Jane's back, drawing circles on his shoulders, tries to calm him down, scared as well by his sudden outburst. It's not unusual seeing him enraged and ready to do everything on a Red John case, but this? He has never threatened a Red John victim, or a potential Red John victim, like Donovan, before, knowing the pain that the killer inflicts upon his victims. This is new, his eyes…

She has never been scared of Patrick Jane before, never, but right now, she is no longer sure of anything. When she tense, still touching him with hesitation, Lisbon just hopes he doesn't feel it, scared that it could make things worse, that he could get more enraged, getting mad with herself as well…

"Not until she answers my question, Lisbon" he turns back to face Donovan, her right wrist in his closed fist. "Agent Donovan, is this man your father?" he asks calmer, but still scaring her, almost producing a reaction from Crews.

"YES, HE IS, DAMMIT, I TOLD YOU SO!" she screams as they both face each other with wide eyes, Donovan almost crying, Jane scared and clearly unsure.

"Boss, their eyes…" Van pelt whispers in Lisbon's ear, both of them gulping as they stares, eyes wide open, at Donovan and Jane. 

"I know, Van Pelt, I know…" Lisbon is shocked, would like to get closer and closer, to "feel their faces" to examine them. She wonders how she has been able to miss this, something like that. _I've just noticed that Donovan has blue eyes, but there are so many people with blue eyes! How could I have missed that shape, that shade, is just… I've looked so many times in Jane's eyes, and I still missed it… _

"In this case, Detective Anne Donovan, I think I should introduce you to someone. Meet your father and your brother, Alexander and Patrick Jane" he pauses a while, looking lost as Donovan as well, who's almost falling on the soil, at loss of words, lost looking at the picture still in Jane's hand and then at the man himself, gulping, her breath dying in her throat "Nice to meet you, sis"


	4. 3

Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just **_"write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed bu the light of reason..." _**(No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one fo the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...).

Mega, super, ultra Author's note...: I have the evil that men do on hiatus since this summer,I'm well aware of that. And I'm terribly late with the translation of my fanfics from English into Italian (I still have to understand how is possible that I think and write in English, and I'm pretty unable to make my stories made sense into Italian. Mah.), and I'm even terribly late in writing Blackdragon, if you know what I'm talking about... but here I am, with a new multichapter. the rating is T for security measures, even if I'm not sure I'll ever need it, and, just for the record:

this is dedicated to the talented PetiteJ, nice writer and amazing artist of the mentalist, and mostly JISBON, universe. this story took life a while ago via MSN, we ended up discussing this possibility, and I ended up telling her "I think I'll write soemthing about it, you know?" and so, here we are!

BTW. thanks to both my reviewers. You make my day. and to all of you who put me and or the story on fav or alerts. it's alwasy good, but still weird, seeing so many emails in my account...

* * *

CHAPTER 3

When Crews offers his large, and rather empty, mansion to Donovan and the people who'll look after her, she gently declines, preferring the apartment provided by the department, a safe house, small and less fancy then what's owned by the rich detective, of course, but the woman right now is dealing with a bit too much, and she isn't sure she can handle being 24/7 around the redhead, not when Charlie is clearly trying to win her over back, something she doesn't need right now. To be honest, she never needed it, and never will. Charlie Crews is, for many reason, the last person she needs at her side, she needs to be in a romantic relationship with. She knew it when he just flirted with her when they first met on a crime scene. She knew it when they went on a date. She knew after she had had sex with him for the first time. She knew it the morning, months later, when she suddenly woke up in the middle of the night wondering why it had took her so long to realize that, with him, she wasn't happy, just more stressed than even before.

So, yeah, better being in some dirty place with the company of strangers- the CBI- than dealing with Charlie.

Even if the DNA tests will not be ready until the following morning, it seems clear to everyone that the reason Donovan, through her best friend, has been targeted, it's because she is, indeed, a Jane in the blood.

Anne doesn't want to talk about it, actually, while sitting Buddha style with her back against the foot of the leather couch, in the position Charlie taught her to sue when "busy" with meditation, she tries to NOT think about it, to empty her mind.

Or to find some reason into this madness, as probably Lisbon, sitting on a chair in front of her, is trying to do as well, trying (and failing) to conceal her worries for the man Donovan has found out is probably her brother, Patrick Jane.

"First, I wanted to say how sorry I am for both Crews' attitude and mine. Of course, I can talk for him, but maybe I've been a bit exaggerated in my reaction to your questions, it's just that I'm not used to being questioned, and I can be pretty defensive when it comes to my cases. Second, I want you to understand that I don't know it" she tells Lisbon, awakening the dark haired agent from her reverie, almost staring for an instant at her with those blue eyes that Lisbon knows too well, closing them for a while for breathing in and out, trying to focus, to look at things from the outside.

"I'm sorry? I was kind of lost in my thoughts, and I haven't heard you. You were saying?"

"I said I'm sorry for the way both Crews and I tended to misbehave when you questioned me at my place" she says, and Lisbon doesn't miss the fact that Donovan didn't refer to the place as "home", but simply a place "and that I don't know who could know I'm a Jane, that I may be a Jane, I mean"

"You really didn't know about your father? Nothing, not even his first name, where they met…"

"The space on the documents where the father's name was supposed to be was empty. I never asked and mum never talked."

In her chair, Lisbon reflects, looking at the woman standing in front of her; Donovan may have never meet her "half-brother" before, but the similarities between them are scary, and she isn't thinking about only the obvious blue eyes.

She realizes, as she joins the detective on the carpet, that Donovan will never talk, not alone; just like with _Patrick_, she'll have to force the answers out of her, and even then, they'll probably be short and essential in few cases, elaborated to move her focus away from the brown-head in others.

"Weren't you curious?"

"Well" she starts, hugging her knees and turning to Lisbon "I was, when I was just a little girl. I think I got tired of hearing my mum's silences when I asked her about him, so I stopped. At the end, I didn't care any longer, because I was too used to being just the two of us"

"And… you've never thought about the fact that maybe he had… abandoned you?"

"To be honest, no, I've never considered this idea. It was easier and less painful believing my dad was donator #3456. When I was older, and I realized what happened…" Lisbon looks at her almost crying, wide eyes, in shock, clearly misunderstanding her words, and when the agent is already making her question, Donovan stops her, shaking her head "relax, Agent Lisbon, nothing like that happened. My parents were as in love as they could be. But it doesn't mean that my mother didn't suffer, that she wasn't scared or that Alexander Jane didn't hurt her, on an emotional level only, of course. I just know that every time a man seemed interested in her, I saw that despair and longing in her eyes…" she pauses, almost laughing "It's strange, but when I've learned the truth, I hated for a long time her the most"

"I thought you didn't know who your father was."

"I didn't, in fact. She left me the photographs and a letter, with few random facts, told me they met at a carnie near Santa Barbara during the summer of her 25th birthday, that he was close to his forties, that he saved her from a group of drunken guys who were harassing her. Told me he offered her food and cold water because she was in shock and scared, and left without telling her his name, she told me she come back there every day until they met again, they talked, that one day he invited her over to dinner, one thing led to another and, at the end of the summer, she found out she was pregnant. And she kind of forget to mention that somewhere out there, there was a brother of mine" she pauses, looking not at Lisbon, but in the void, a point behind the dark haired agent's shoulders, lost in her won world, and Lisbon isn't sure if the following words are said to her or by Donovan to Donovan herself "When I was little, I used to dream that my father had children out there, and that one day we were all going to meet and be a normal and plain family. Guess that the first part of my whish just got true…"

"Did he know? I mean, Jane didn't know of your mother or of you, but maybe, Alexander, his father… your father, I mean, maybe he did and…"

"She never told him, of that I'm sure, but if he was aware of me being on the way… I can't say it for sure. Mum said he was very… intuitive. He said I was a bit like him in that department. And like your consultant, Patrick I mean, from what I saw." Donovan pauses again, looking at her feet, lost in her own thoughts, contemplating the truth she has tried to not face in all these years "Mum… she said they were in love with each other, she said Alexander loved her back, and the 3 months they spent together had been the best of both their lives, but… you heard what Jane said. He was a man who walked between legality and illegality, and… she didn't want this for her child, for me. Apparently because she had seen what he was doing to HIS OWN child? She left, never got married, out of guilt or because she was still in love with him, I can't say. And there we are, end of the story."

"How can you not care about it? How can you not be bothered by all of this?" she asks her not with indignation, but, well, a bit shaken. That's another trait that Donovan seems to have in common with her "half-brother", this calmness, this apparent "beatitude". Nothing seems to bother them, if not people or pointless things.

"Agent Lisbon" she calmly states "deep down, I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I'm freaking out. I'm scared. But I'm a good performer. Besides, to keep my mind busy, I'm mentally going through all my cases and putting down notes about an essay about the anthropological meaning of vampirism and of the extremist Goth movement in modern criminology in this Country."

"Nice, I'm sure it helps to sleep, thinking about people who think they are vampires and drink blood…"

"The fact that I'm an not only an expert in chemistry but an anthropologist as well helps me to understand such movements better, it helps me to focus on the psychological aspect of crimes, and it gives me a better insight. We may say my knowledge gives me a hint at the mechanisms of the human mind. The rest of the work, it's because I'm quite good at picking up the details, big or small. If I know how a mind works, it's a bit like knowing where I'm supposed to look for evidences, we can say. I think it's the reason why, at the end, when it came to choosing what to do, I accepted to be part of a Crime Lab. "

"Just like our Jane, knowing the darkest secrets and deep angles of the human mind, always busy picking up every single detail, as pointless as it may seem." Lisbon replies smiling with a hint of a blush on her face.

"Speaking of which, I was wondering how long the two of you have been together and why you don't wear your wedding ring…"

"Wait, what? No! There's nothing between us! He is, he is Jane, for crying out loud! That's HIS wedding ring, not ours! We work together! We can't date! And even if we were interested in each other, there are too many things between us, and, besides, as I already said, HE IS JANE!"

"And I'm pretty sure you are realizing you are blushing and rambling" She smiles, coming back into meditative position, as she looks in front of herself at closed eyes, feeling Lisbon's gaze on her.

"Are you sure you need the DNA tests? Because I just know it will come back positive. There's no way you and Patrick Jane are not related"

"Is that a compliment or an insult, Agent Lisbon?" she asks with amusement, clearly enjoying the company even given the circumstances. It's been too long since she has even only tried to behave normally with someone she doesn't directly work with. The only person she could behave this way with was Bobby, and even with him, it was different. Maybe, she wonders, she is doing all of this not just to HAVE company and enjoy it, even given the horrible circumstances, but mostly because she hopes that, if she'll tell something to Lisbon about herself, the dark haired agent will tell her something in return, something about her brother, a brother she never knew she had.

"Think about your so-called half-brother, and give yourself an answer"

"Well, if we consider the closing cases rate, I'd say it's a compliment, since my closing cases is quite good as well…"

"Yeah, I had that impression while we were going through that mountain of closed cases…"

"I'm proud to say that I have an average of 17 cases closed each month. I'm currently detective Sergeant, and I'm planning of making to captain around the age of forty. My personal dream is of turning the LAPD crime lab in one of the best of the Country." she pauses again, looking worried at her feet "Of course, if we examine the messing around, manipulating, misleading and annoying the hell out of people, and I'd say you are insulting me"

"Like I said, like brother, like sister…"

Donovan didn't even answer Lisbon, but, simply, smiles at her "Ehy, do you want to try yoga or Zen meditation? You seemed to envy me while I was trying to calm down my inner nerves…"

"No funny business, promise?"

"I usually behave when it concerns other cops. Besides, I'd not mind the company for once"

"Why do I have the impression that it's one of those scout promises?" Lisbon says, more to herself than to Donovan while the dark haired cop just shakes her head.

Donovan just laughs under her teeth, not even trying to make sense of Lisbon's last sentence, said with a bright smile and a hint of blushing.

She is just sure it concerns her "brother".


	5. 4

Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just **_"write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed bu the light of reason..." _**(No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one fo the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...).

Mega, super, ultra Author's note...: I have the evil that men do on hiatus since this summer,I'm well aware of that. And I'm terribly late with the translation of my fanfics from English into Italian (I still have to understand how is possible that I think and write in English, and I'm pretty unable to make my stories made sense into Italian. Mah.), and I'm even terribly late in writing Blackdragon, if you know what I'm talking about... but here I am, with a new multichapter. the rating is T for security measures, even if I'm not sure I'll ever need it, and, just for the record:

this is dedicated to the talented PetiteJ, nice writer and amazing artist of the mentalist, and mostly JISBON, universe. this story took life a while ago via MSN, we ended up discussing this possibility, and I ended up telling her "I think I'll write soemthing about it, you know?" and so, here we are and to Jisbon4ever (who's having her birthday in these days)...

BTW. thanks to both my reviewers. You make my day. and to all of you who put me and or the story on fav or alerts. it's alwasy good, but still weird, seeing so many emails in my account...

* * *

CHAPTER 4

"My guess is that the tests come back positive and that you just found out that I'm, indeed, your sister" Donovan simply grins as she said so, not even bothering to remove her eyes from the books she is looking at and notebook where she is taking notes. It's been few hours since her "chat" with Agent Lisbon, and "Patrick" has just joined her in the same room his half-sister shared with the agent, only, this time, the position are reversed-he is the one on the leather couch, and she is on the chair previously used by the other cop. "you are clearly worried and uncomfortable, and you keep stealing glances at me whenever you think I'm not paying attention"

"You are doing the same, only, you just pretend to not be bothered by this whole situation, you do your best to not look scared and worried, but it's just a mask"

"It's not the first time I do this, _Patrick._ My mind work this way, it's the only way I know how to make it work. Normally, I'm more subtle, though. Or maybe you can read me better than I thought"

"When they realize you have manipulated them, everything's done and said. Nice style, I like it. I'm not that subtle, though, even if I like to think that only who wants to see the manipulation can see it. But I think that it depends on the fact that I need constant attention, too long under the spotlights, I guess" Jane pauses, as Anne lets go of her books, her glasses now on the coffee table, and looks at Jane, uncomfortable at loss of words, because one thing is dreaming of having a long lost brother when you are a child, another one finding out it's the truth when you're thirty. "But you probably know it, since you looked into my file. Please, don't be ashamed, I understand why you did it"

"Of course you do, you, after all, did the same, even if probably by channels a bit different from my ones."

"True" he smiles, and laughs, but it's a bit like he doesn't want for her to see it, like it's caused by her "Sorry, no offence. I was just thinking that a while back, a friend of mine told me he couldn't believe that there was a Jane helping the law, and now, here I am, facing a Jane in the blood that not only helps the police, but IS part of the police. I wonder what my friends from the carnie would say, meeting you, that's all" he pauses again, looking at her, taking a big breath, unsure of what he is supposed to say in this kind of situation. "We are so similar, yet, so different"

"Two siblings are divided at birth. One is raised by his biological family, in poverty, the other one is taken in by a rich family. Once they'll grow up into men, will they be similar, or different?"

"You're talking about the influence of the social background on the development of body and mind, if I'm not mistaken"

"Exactly; a different environment, in fact, explains the mental and physical differences. But what do you tell me about the similarities, considering that our minds seem to work in quite the same way? Follow me: genetic marks define the brain chemistry, brain chemistry defines behavior, thus, a modification of brain chemistry, and if we can find them, of the genetic marks influencing it, we can modify behavior. It'd be a brand new level of rehab!"

"I've seen something like that once. It didn't work, by the way" he says in mocked annoyance, but still with a little smile. As much as he hates this case, he can't help but think that this woman is trying her best to ONLY seem calm, and okay with everything going on in their lives, because, really, a sister? Not that he had never thought about it- his father has been quite the womanizer back in his days, when they were still both in the carnie, so, it's not exactly a surprise that he isn't the only heir left by Alexander Jane. Only, he has never thought about meeting one, or that he'd meet said heir over a Red John case, and because of Red John.

"You know what? I think we should discuss the details over a cup of tea…"

"You drink tea. You, a cop, drink tea. I thought cops worked on caffeine" he tells her, jumping from his position to sit and face Anne, amused but shocked as well. Apparently, that's something they both have in common as well.

"Well, yes, but not me. I don't like coffee. I rather prefer Tea made in that unique way mum always did it to me, and that no one seems to do as well as she used to…." she pauses, and smiles at closed eyes, smiling and enjoying the imaginary cup of tea like it was in her hands "Warm Milk, add boiling water, immerge the filter for 3 or four times, and then…"

"Add half a teaspoon of clover honey" they end the sentence together, and Jane looks at her, amused, studying how shy, but yet happy, right now Donovan seems to be.

"Dad thought me to do it that way when I was only a child, and I'm the only one able to do it. And there's Lisbon, of course" he says with a small, but yet meaningful, smile, like lost in his thoughts, like he was enjoying said cup of tea, and said cup of tea has been made by the aforementioned woman. "The others, I can repeat them how many times I like how it has to be done, but she is still the only one who can do it as good as me, maybe even better" the devotion in his voice doesn't go unnoticed by Anne, who studies for an instant her half-brother, hoping that he'll not notice it, imagining what his reaction would be.

She has seen the way Patrick and Lisbon behave with each other, she has seen the lingering touches, the smiles, the blushing (on both sides, even if Patrick may try to hide it as much as he wants, she has seen it), the look of devotion and happiness as they talk about each other, the way they argue like a married couple… and, frankly, she understands why Patrick, even if probably aware of his own feelings and how Lisbon feels the same, is holding back. She has done the same for a long time, she is probably still doing it deep down, and she didn't have a serial killer obsessed with her that had killed her family still at large…

"Well, apparently, our… father taught my mother as well, because I've learned from her. No one does it as I like it, not even Charlie, who's rather obsessed with Tea. Because of the Zen, I think"

"I don't understand what's wrong with that guy" he says smiling, without looking at her, folding one of the pieces of paper she threw on the pavement in the shape of a penguin.

"Of course you do, why do you always ask questions when you already know the answer?"

"I like to see how people answer me. That's how I can do my "magic", let's say"

"Well, you knew how I was going to answer. I was going to tell you the truth because I knew you looked into his file, or at least asked around."

"I'm not surprised he turned to something so… focused… like Zen, it's not uncommon, given the circumstances." Patrick answers her, Anne back to her book, him looking at a point behind her shoulders "He has spent 12 years of his life locked in prison, mostly in isolation, for a crime he hadn't committed. It was suicide or Zen, I guess." He says with calm and nonchalance, looking at Anne, stealing glances at her to see how she'll react to his statement.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"That's the problem between you two. You probably are in love with him, or at least have feelings extremely close to love for him, but you think he is just _trying_ to love you, that he _want _to love you, because he has lost his wife to divorce in those infernal years. You think you'd end up being second best to another person, like your mother has been to the carnie circuit for my… _our_ father. But, mostly, the reason you called things off with him, the reason you refuse to give him a second chance even if he swears eternal love to you and even proposed, it's that you think Crews is broken, not broken beyond repair, though, but broken nevertheless. And you feel like you are broken as well, and what you want is someone entire, someone who could put your pieces back together. You don't, and can't be, a savior, a healer, because you feel like the one needing it, and Charlie, with all his baggage, can't be that for you. You are refusing him because you know that in the long run nether of you will be happy, but you'll never end things at that point, both of you too scared of hurting the other to the point of non-return."

"Lisbon is right. Patrick dear, I'm sorry to tell you I hate you" she mocks. She should be annoyed and mad with him, but she really can't. She is too curious to find out as much as possible about this man, this older brother she has never met, never knew about, but who is reality and part, even if only in blood, for now, of her family.

A part of her would just behave like she has done with Lisbon the previous day, mocking him about his "supposed relationship" with his boss, but… well, mocking a man who has lost his family (and his "supposed love interest") to a serial killer with small talk about his flirting and wed couple bantering with his boss, who's crazy about him… well, she doesn't think it may be the wisest idea, especially since it's Patrick Jane she is dealing with, and she has red enough in the last couple of days to know that it's better if she doesn't try to play with him her "little dirty and bastard" mind games.

Even if it'd not be a mind game, de facto, since he is crazy (and maybe even in love, even if he'll never admit it, not yet, at least) about the woman.

God, sometimes she still wonders why humans have to be so complicated.

"Besides, even if he was, let's say normal, it'd never work, because you still have to move on from your ex" he looks at Donovan, awakening her from the reverie she has fallen into while wondering about HIS love life, and Patrick can see the pain and the sufferance on her face, he sees her eyes turning teary, and her left hand going to hold something around her neck, at a chain, hidden by the fabric of her green t-shirt. _You don't keep your rings around your neck when you divorce, even if you haven't been the one asking for it in the first place _he realizes as his expression probably mimics her own, his own hand busy with his wedding band "Sorry. I didn't saw any pictures of a significant half at your place, you weren't wearing the ring and I assumed…"

"The fact that I don't wear them at my fingers, doesn't mean that I don't have them at all" her eyes fall on his wedding ring, as Anne pulls out from the shirt the subtle chain, where two rings have residence, a wedding band, subtle, in yellow gold, two lines with two ovals stones and three round between them, remembering an antique jewel, and an engagement ring, a bit antique as well, but probably a really antique from the looks of it, maybe an heirloom, in yellow gold with few small rubies forming the petals of a flower and a small diamond as a centre. "I thought you went through my file"

"Nah, just asked around, and, apparently, they are very secretive about you, Detective. Or either they don't know a lot about you, just the few, small things you make them aware of. After all, you moved her from Santa Barbara, so, I assume back there they knew of this, but not here. The people who's close to you doesn't even have a reason to believe you have been married at all, considering you use your maiden name" he pauses, and he'd like to take her in his arms, and cuddle her to sleep, because there's maybe someone who can understands his pain, and because she is family, but he can't. Anne Donovan may be his sister, but they have found each other less than 24 hours before. Besides, for once, he has to talk with someone, named her. "I really thought you were divorced." And as she looks at him, Anne can't say if he saying this because he is his personal way of asking for forgiveness (like with the origami-she has seen him, well, noticed from afar, that he had given Lisbon an origami frog after he had "misbehaved", behaving as usual, at the crime scene, making assumption on both she and Charlie) or because he is disappointed with himself because he didn't pick up such an important detail.

"It's been… three years, four months, two weeks, and… couples of days, since Mike's death. Sometimes… sometimes I even forget about it, when I'm on the job, you know? Then I remember that one morning I was there, in the place where we wanted to move in, I remember that, that day, in the morning, I still had a husband, that we were seriously thinking about expanding the family, and that one night, someone ringed my doorbell, and suddenly I was a widow and children no longer were in the picture, and this place was simply empty and too big for one person only. And I… people keeps saying I should move on, ok? And I know I should. I mean, it's not like I haven't dated, because, maybe it has been only Charlie, but it still count, right? But, how can I say it will not happen again? That I'll be awakened in the middle of the night by someone who will tell me I lost a husband? How can I be sure I'll eventually be happy again, or that I'll not be alone again?"

"You can't" he tells her, looking at his feet, understanding few things but not all. He can understands why she is scared of losing the person she loves the most, but, why does she feels guilty of her husband's death? Is it only because she is a survivor? Or is there something else she isn't telling him yet? "You can't stop being a widow, or a widower, in my case. It's not something you have chosen, they've been… ripped away from you, in an unexpected way. They'll always be the FIRST ONES, not the exes. They'll always be there, along with the lingering thought that it could happen all over again, along with all the buts and what ifs. Not that I'm such an expert, since I had only one date and it was the worst date of history, so, I'm not sure your older brother is exactly helpful in the dating and romance department" he laughs, smiling, making Anne smiling as well, but, suddenly, he turns back to serious, wanting to tell her something that has been in his mind since he has discovered the truth about the blood of this twelve years junior woman. "Listen, there's something I wanted… the fact it is, my… our father, he kind of… suggested the name of my daughter, and…"

"What? No, really, there's no need to, I mean, we just found out I am your sister, and if you don't want to talk about any of it, now or never, I'll understand and besides, it's not like I'm dying to tell me about my own marriage or anything, so, just, don't think that I expect you talk to me or that…you know, it's just that… you know, right?" If he wasn't so hearth broken by the memories he is awakening in both mind and soul right now, Jane would smile. Lisbon has been right when she had told him that there was no way he and Donovan weren't related, because they were just the same, even when it comes with struggling with words about serious and important things, like now.

"No, no, I know, and, believe me, I'm not ready to talk about it either, because, well, there's so much in my mind, so many… bad things, that I fear that once I'll start, I'll never be able to stop, besides, I just talked _a bit _about it with one person only " he says, taking another big breath, and looking into his blue eyes, in silence, Anne wonders if the person he is referring to is the only one he apparently partly trusts, Teresa Lisbon "but… there's something you need to know, about my daughter. You see, her name… it was Charlotte Anne, and I doubt it was a coincidence daddy dearest suggested it"

"Oh"

"I think out father was aware of your mother's pregnancy and ever tracked her somehow, you know, keeping tabs on her and you as well along the years."

"Ah"

"Yeah, I know, but, it is daddy dearest, so, I'm not exactly surprised. Not to break your ideal vision of him, but he tended to be a manipulative son of a bitch. I can see him, waiting for the right moment to show up and exploit you."

"And, Listen, about… him, he is still, or he is… you know…"

"Last time I saw him, when my daughter was born, he was alive and well. We haven't really spoken since, but I've kept tabs on him as well, and he is well"

"Good to know. Not that I want to know him. Not that I don't want to know him, only…"

"And, we should consider the possibility that… that Red John found out by him or someone close by him, about your identity, and so, I was thinking that…"

He is stopped when his mobile rings, and, while he hears Lisbon telling him about what happened few hours before, he shivers in shock, not knowing if looking at Anne or pacing for the room ,mentally and both physically.

"It was Lisbon" he says once hanged up. Anne looks at Jane, looking at everything around but her, his fingers running through his hair, mentally pacing, paler than before, clearly in shock. Again, Anne is scared, even if for another reason: it didn't take her long to figure out Patrick Jane is a great performer, a spectacular actor always wearing a mask (with rare, and quick, exceptions, of real smiles and almost invisible blushes whenever Teresa Lisbon is around). If he is so agitated, it means something bad, really bad, happened.

And there's only one thing that can be that bad to make his feel that way, she realizes.

"What are you not telling me?" She finally dares to ask, try to force Jane, with her whispered request, to meet her eyes.

"Apparently, your ex found a red smiley at his place"


	6. 5

Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just **_"write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed bu the light of reason..." _**(No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one fo the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...).

Mega, super, ultra Author's note...: I have the evil that men do on hiatus since this summer,I'm well aware of that. And I'm terribly late with the translation of my fanfics from English into Italian (I still have to understand how is possible that I think and write in English, and I'm pretty unable to make my stories made sense into Italian. Mah.), and I'm even terribly late in writing Blackdragon, if you know what I'm talking about... but here I am, with a new multichapter. the rating is T for security measures, even if I'm not sure I'll ever need it, and, just for the record:

this is dedicated to the talented PetiteJ, nice writer and amazing artist of the mentalist, and mostly JISBON, universe. this story took life a while ago via MSN, we ended up discussing this possibility, and I ended up telling her "I think I'll write soemthing about it, you know?"

BTW. thanks to al my reviewers. You make my day, (especially you, Laura. you're amzing and alwasy menage to inspire me!) and to all of you who put me and or the story on fav or alerts. it's alwasy good, but still weird, seeing so many emails in my account...

BTW-Kuhlama, tell me, after reading this, if you assumption was correct!

* * *

CHAPTER 5

Charlie Crews may "only" be Anne Donovan's ex (even if he'd like more to be her current boyfriend/lover/fiancée/life partner, and he is becoming a little bit too insistent for her own taste and his own good) but has been, although for a brief time, just few months, an important part of her life.

If she has to be completely honest (and she is sure that sooner or later Patrick Jane will request such honesty about this topic, as annoying as he is) she doesn't exactly know what drove her towards this man. Part of her thinks that it's because, basically, she pitied the red head detective for what had happened to him. Sometimes, she thinks that it's been only because he has been quite insistent in winning her over (and she knew from sure sources that he hasn't done such a thing since he had left his "other life" behind). Sometimes, she thinks the only reason she started dating Crews in the first place was because she was tired of being alone and just wanted to put her own old life behind- maybe see if she was actually ready to be in a proper relationship again, to be in something that big, that important, that serious, that could, maybe, just maybe, culminate in marriage.

The majority of the times, this last theory wins; it makes her feel guilty, horrible, egoistical, like she had used him all along because she thought that, since he was damaged good, nothing good could come out of a story between them- no broken hearts for the people without hearth, or the ones whose hearts are already broken.

But she realizes that it doesn't matter as Patrick Jane drives them from the safe house to the Crews' mansion, breaking every street code rule, on his old car (which is nice, and probably used to be sporty when it was sold for the first time, when, in the fifties?). It doesn't matter because Charlie Crews has been an important part of her life; he has been a man she has, kind of, been in love with.

And now, this simple fact, the fact that she spender the nights in the mansion where they are going to, has put, is putting, him at risk.

His life, his very existence, is at risk again… like his life hasn't been a hell until now. Only, this time, it's her fault. She is the one to blame… again.

She'd like to laugh for the irony of this. She ends up putting in danger, all the men who make the mistake of falling for her. She couldn't do anything, having been able to do anything, for Michael Storm, she hasn't been able to save her own husbands, and, even if Charlie is no longer in that position, and will never be in that position again… she can't help but hope she'll be able to save him, that _someone, anyone, _will be able to save him.

_And Patrick dares to ask me why I feel like I don't feel worthy being loved…. _

"Anne? We're here." He tells her awakening his "half-sister" from her reverie, the woman lost in her own fears while looking at the landscape running from the glass "Wow, and I didn't almost believe the rumors. If the place is any indication of how much he has taken for the little mistake the LAPD did, I'd say it is more like 50 than 5 millions…"

If Jane's objective is trying to make her smile, he is wrong.

Not that he blames her. He _can understand, he does understand, _why she is closing up this way, why she feels guilty.

Actually, he doesn't, even if he is sure he knows what kind of thoughts are running through her mind, and he doesn't need to be a psych to know it, but, still, he is sure that there's nothing she should be sorry about. Whatever is happening, it's not her fault.

Red John isn't really playing with her, but with him. It's against him that the killer has a personal, twisted vendetta, not against Anne. Anne didn't do anything wrong. Anne didn't enraged a serial killer, never mocked him on national television.

He did.

Her only fault is being somehow related to him, that's nothing she asked for, probably something she'd never ask or want, and she'd rather prefer never having meet him, he is quite sure of it.

And because she is related to him, because she is, even only by blood and not name or heart, family, now everyone she cares, ever cared about, is in danger.

_And she feels guilty. I should be the one feeling guilty. I'm the one who put that on her. I'm the one who killed my family, who destroyed Kristina's existence, the one who keeps putting the team's life in danger, who keeps putting at risk Teresa…_

Jane knows it's quite stupid, because he actually didn't do anything to put Donovan in particular in danger. He had never met her before, never knew of her existence. But, still, the fact that he does exist puts her, and everyone she loves, and cares about for extension, in danger, just like it happens every day with him. It happened to his family, it happened to Kristina (even if a good part of what happened was actually her fault-she knew what playing with Red John meant, and she still did it anyway)… and it could happen to anyone who gets too close to him, to the team, and to Teresa.

_And she dares to wonder why Teresa and I, even if we have feelings for each other, don't act on them. What should do I do, offer her on a silver plate to Red John to be killed and taken away from me and whoever who needs and may need her in the future? No, I'm selfish, but not that much._

"About time, Jane" the woman always present in his dreams and thoughts welcomes them as soon as the Citroen is parked right before the front door, immediately guiding them through the mansion, a place Jane has never been while Anne has been too many times.

While they both notices Lisbon's dark bags under her eyes, both Patrick and Anne's minds wonder. Anne is scared, and keeps feeling guilty and a part of she is mad with Charlie, for many reasons, while Jane…

As soon as he had seen the outside of the mansion, Patrick has thought the guy was just a pompous jerk and a sick and twisted SOB, who enjoys his "new money". But, once inside, he realizes he has been wrong. Charlie Crews isn't enjoying his new money; probably he'd give them all away, if it could change what has happened to him.

The place is as empty as his Malibu home. Ok, maybe a little less, because he can see the glimpse of a kitchen (without a table, though), but, still… it still seems that no one is there, like the place hasn't even been sold yet.

He bets that the guy brought the first house he has been showed. "His lawyer took the first place she has been showed, as he has asked her to" Anne explains him, almost whispering, a little unsure, and Jane doesn't know what he is more (kind of) proud of, of the fact that she has been able to say what his wondering eyes were suggesting, or of the fact that, once again, he has been (almost completely) right.

"It's here, in the… walk in closet… or whatever this room was supposed to be." Lisbon tells them showing an empty, not too big, room, white walls covered with a big, red smiley who welcomes them, the rest of the team, minus Van Pelt, busy at the department, already there, included Charlie (who looks at the thing with nonchalance and one of his damn Zen smiles) and Ted Earley, Charlie's (sort of) room-mate (both at home and in Pelican Bay Prison) and financial advisor, who's looking at the detective with evident fear, in panic, for at least two good reasons (and only one is clear to all the detectives; the second, less obvious, is hidden to everyone but Charlie, Ted and Anne and a couple of other people in the world).

_Shit _she curses taking a big breath and biting her lips as she recognizes the room, the motive Ted is so scared and agitated.

"What are you hiding, Detective?" Patrick suddenly asks, in his usual irritating tone, only, less jovial, but more cold and determinate, like often, if not always, during those cases, The Red John related ones. He isn't a stupid. Red John loves "playing" in the bedrooms of his victims; he has done with almost all of them, Anne's friend included, and that, as Lisbon has pointed out, isn't Charlie Crew's bedroom. Thus, if Red John chosen that room among the multitude at disposition, there's a reason, a reason that Crews knows, a reason both the man in his fifties knows, and something of which Annie is well aware as well.

"Charlie is it true that… Charlie, is it true that… that this is the work of a serial killer? Did a serial killer entered in this place?"

"Relax Ted; he wasn't here for you, or for me. Not that it really matters, because, were we going to die, we'd come back in a higher and purer form." He smirks. And even Anne rolls her eyes at him, enraged.

"Yes, but…Charlie, a serial killer was here! He could have killed ME! Why...why...why can't you close the damn door and use security systems like any other billionaire does?"

"There's no security system? You don't have cameras? Not even one?"

"There's nothing to steal, Agent Lisbon" he answers smiling scrolling his shoulders "the only not empty rooms are the kitchen and my bedroom"

"Charlie, I… I have an apartment here, Charlie! I live on the room over your garage! I live in a room that communicates with this hall! He should have been able to come to me! What if he came to me? What if I surprised him? What if… oh my God, a serial killer, Charlie, doe you understand any of it? It is way worse than anything that had happened before! Why can't you just… be normal for once?"

"Ok, people, sorry to interrupt your nervous breakdown, but I'll say it again: do you have a security system, any kind of security system, Detective?"

"As I already told you, agent Lisbon, I really don't need something like that" he answers like before, smiling, proud and satisfied.

"In you, Lisbon, I'd be more shocked by the fact that he leaves the door open." Jane interrupts, entering into Mentalist mode "even if it makes sense. Mr. Crews has spent twelve years of his life in Pelican bay State prison for a crime he hadn't committed. Now, he is free yet again, something he has never even dared to dream of, during those long years. One locked, never locked again."

Charlie smiles again, acting with nonchalance, something that, Anne is sure, isn't faked. Zen, during those long years of confinement, all alone in a cell 23/7, has really made magic things to the man.

(Sometimes, during moments like that, she can't help but wonder how he used to be BEFORE any of it happened, how'd be meeting him as a free man, if they'd ended up together or not…) "I'll ask you again, detective. What are not telling us? Why was this room so important for Red John?"

"Well, it's the first room you meet one you walk into the mansion. He probably took it for this reason. Dramatic and theatrical effect, let's say"

_Liar _Both Anne and Patrick think, but for different reasons. Patrick knows Crews is hiding something. Crews, Anne and Ted all know what this something is. "Charlie, either you tell them, or I'll do it on my own" she tells him coldly, well aware of the fact that he'll never forgive her for it.

Because Charlie Crews never shows emotions, if not happiness and a free spirit, and right now Anne Donovan is forcing him to admit that he is human, that, even with all his talking about getting it over with, he is, still, human, he is just like them.

"I kept… a case file here. Pictures, newspaper articles, notes: everything that could help me to find out the truth. I used to call it the… the conspiracy wall." he admits, looking at crossed arms at Anne, enraged and feeling… betrayed.

"The truth about what, Detective Crews, what case were you working here, on your free time and outside work?" Lisbon asks, looking at the empty room. Whatever Crews was working on, he either give up or solved the mystery.

"His own, Lisbon" Jane answers like hit by enlightenment, his affirmation confirmed by Anne's expression "As soon as he left jail, he decided to find out who did this to him. Detective Crews here isn't as driven by Zen as he claims to be, he is just like us all, like _me" _he gets closer and closer to Charlie, blue eyes into blue eyes "he is driven by the thirst for revenge just as much as I do, isn't it, detective?"

"But why giving up if he wanted to get his revenge? I haven't heard he found out why he had been framed or by whom and the whole LAPD just talks about him the whole time!"

"But this is the thing, Rigsby, he hadn't given up!" Jane explains, happy and satisfied "years and years of prison forged his soul, my friend. If the case file isn't here any longer, it's either because he has solved the case and got his revenge, or because he has solved the case but couldn't actually obtain it. I think the man responsible for his imprisonment may be a rather powerful one, someone with connections…"

"What? Hold on, wait… you said it's someone rather powerful and with connections… isn't it what you've always thought of Red John? That he was someone powerful and with connections? You think this man could be Red John? Is it what you are trying to tell us?" Cho inquires with his most emotive expression, while Lisbon looks terrified in a new light at the smiley, shifting her gaze from it to Crews and then to Donovan and Jane and so on.

"Mmm, it maybe, but I doubts it. My idea is that, whoever framed Detective Crews is someone _connected _with Red John, and this someone was aware of the meaning of this particular room for detective Crews… tell me, detective, who knew of this room, besides you, Detective Donovan and Mister Earley? Who framed you?"

"Just two people were aware of what I kept here, the person who framed me and ordered the killing of my best friend and his family, and the one who discovered it for him, his personal security specialist."

_And all the women you used to bring here to have wild sex with them, after 12 years of forced celibacy _Anne thinks with rage, closing firmly her fists, hoping that Charlie will not notice it, that Patrick will be focused enough on the smiley to not keep attention to her, or to think about pissing her off. He shouldn't, anyway, piss her off because, during the few months she and Charlie have been together, she had been "enraged" and had issues dealing with the fact that the very bed where they slept together was the same where he had slept with countless of women- because Charlie IS rich, he IS handsome, and he HAS charm.

"Detective Crews, we need a name" Lisbon asks him, resolute, as Patrick looks at the man with shining eyes, already foretasting the agonized victory on his enemy, already feeling the blood on his hands, its irony smell in his nostrils…

"It doesn't matter, Agent Lisbon, you'll never be able to reach him. I had to give up because he was too powerful! You'll ever find a judge that will sign a search warrant, you'll never be able to enter in his office or bring him downtown for questioning, and you'll never be able to arrest him, even if he is a son of a bitch who commits crime after crime! Believe me when I tell you that what he did to me is only the tip of an iceberg."

"Agent Lisbon may not be able to do all the things you are suggesting, detective" Jane interfere in the discussion, needing the name, unable to give up on his revenge, not when, yet again, he is that close to Red John "but I'm not a CBI agent or a detective. Everything that needs to be done, I can do it. I don't have to follow your same rules; I think you don't care if this man will go down legally or not. And I can tell you, once I'll be done with him, he will definitely go down. He'll not even be the shadow of the man he used to be. Just give me his name, detective. Help me, and I'm gonna help you on this" he says offering Charlie his right hand, with an expression Charlie knows too well, since it's the same expression he used to have when he was trying to figure out who had framed him, who had killed his best friend and his family…

"Jane! Detective, don't you dare to give him the name! I'm not authorizing you, and as state agent, I have higher authority than you!" Lisbon almost screams, fighting back the tears, scared. Scared by the light, or, better yet, the dark, in Jane's eyes, the one he has when he talks about what he is going to do to Red John, and scared by what may happen to him, to them…

Mostly, though, she is hurt, because yet again Patrick Jane has showed her that he doesn't really care about them, that they are pawns, that they are means to an end. Really, she shouldn't be that disappointed, she has always knew that he wasn't going to change his mind, not for them, not for her, he had told it so many times… then, why does it hurt so much, knowing that he'll never be able to overcome what has happened, to forgive himself, to move on, that he'll never keep all the promises he has made her over the years? Why does it hurt so much, knowing that he doesn't know her feelings, or doesn't care enough about them? Why does it hurt so much knowing that he doesn't feel the same as she doesn't, and he never will?

Because she has been that stupid to dreaming about a future together, once Red John was out of the picture, because she kept seeing things that weren't there, never have been, that's why. Because she has seen things that weren't there behind dinners and lunches in cozy and romantic restaurants (and, yet, how many times has he told her he couldn't seduce a woman over dinner? No, not a woman, her), behind his trust fall, behind their dancing together, behind the way he has always been there to rescue her (from a killer, from a psycho doctor, from a suspension caused by him), behind the fact that he actually used to talk with her, be sincere, behind the fact that he drove her around in his (nice and somehow intimate) classy car, behind the fact that he drove her into a Ferrari, behind the fact that he wanted to feel her smile, that he brought her a pony or emeralds, that he complimented her, that he drove her to meet his "friends" from the carnie days, behind the fact that his eyes seemed dilated when he looked at her, behind the fact that he was annoyed when he understood she had slept with Mashburn….

And she has been that stupid to believe he was interested in her, even if he has dated Kristina Frey… how could she have been that stupid to believe that Patrick Jane was actually changing, moving on, and was interested in her, of all the women in the world?

_Because you are stupid Teresa, that's why, and you can't help but fall for the wrong kind of men._

"Mikey Rayborn" As Crews says these few words, taking Jane's right in his own and shaking it like in some kind of bonding or sect ritual, she freezes and would like to die, to cry her heart out, because she sees the evil grin on Jane's delicate features…

A grin that says that she is going to lose him, either to death or prison, because it's clear what his intentions are; he'll kill, he is going to kill, soon, Red John, whatever it takes.

In front of her, Anne sees her features shifting, and recognizes the pain in her eyes, the sufferance and the agony… If she ever had any doubt about the fact that Senior Agent Teresa Lisbon was in love with CBI consultant and former psych Patrick Jane, it's now gone.

Because Lisbon's expressions, the way she is looking at Jane, it's the same she had when she looked at her husband for the last time. Those are the eyes of a woman in love, a woman in love who's burying the only man she truly loved.

And Patrick is too blinded by revenge to even see it, or think about it- or maybe, he simply refuses to aknowledge it.

* * *

ps: the next four cahpters are done! And, yes, I'm lacking only the epilogue, If I don't change my plans. It means, it should be around ten cahpter long... lol! not too short, but not too long either!


	7. 6

Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just **_"write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed bu the light of reason..." _**(No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one fo the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...).

Mega, super, ultra Author's note...: I have the evil that men do on hiatus since this summer,I'm well aware of that. And I'm terribly late with the translation of my fanfics from English into Italian (I still have to understand how is possible that I think and write in English, and I'm pretty unable to make my stories made sense into Italian. Mah.), and I'm even terribly late in writing Blackdragon, if you know what I'm talking about... but here I am, with a new multichapter. the rating is T for security measures, even if I'm not sure I'll ever need it, and, just for the record:

this is dedicated to the talented PetiteJ, nice writer and amazing artist of the mentalist, and mostly JISBON, universe. this story took life a while ago via MSN, we ended up discussing this possibility, and I ended up telling her "I think I'll write soemthing about it, you know?"

BTW. thanks to al my reviewers. You make my day, (especially you, Laura. you're amzing and alwasy menage to inspire me!) and to all of you who put me and or the story on fav or alerts. it's alwasy good, but still weird, seeing so many emails in my account...

BTW-Kuhlama, tell me, after reading this, if you assumption was correct!

* * *

CHAPTER 6

"I can't believe you did it! How could you…." Anne stops mid-sentence, still pacing for the almost completely residence, hands on her hips, looking furious. Her "brother" and Lisbon are trying to win a staring contest in the room where Red John, or someone for him, left the smiley. "Seriously, _Crews, _what were you thinking, giving him Rayborn's name?" she hisses, facing him, and uses his surname.

She is mad at him, mad and furious, is even trying to "alienate" and distance herself from him, Charlie knows it, and doesn't understand why she is reacting, overreacting, in this way.

"Ehy, ehy, ehy, wait a sec, I remember a certain someone telling me that if I wasn't going to tell, she'd spill it herself!" he isn't even accusatory, something that extremely troubles Anne. He is his usual fake himself. He is quiet, he is calm and in control. She hates what the prison did to him. She hates what Red John did to her brother. She hates what life imposed on Teresa Lisbon. She hates what a person she thought she could trust did to her.

They are all wearing masks. They are all fake, pretenders, creatures of the dark hiding in plain sight in daylight.

"Don't play games with me, Crews" she says, emphasizing his surname by pointing a finger at him, hissing, nowhere close to be calm. She isn't going to be like him, she can't, she isn't going to allow him to play his Zen, Jedi or whatever they are tricks with her. She isn't going to be fooled by him, not now, not again. "You KNEW you weren't supposed to tell HIM of all! Sweet Lord, Charlie, you know what he wants! You KNOW what he is ready to do!"

"Probably the same things I'd like to do to Rayborn, I guess" he keeps being calm, he keeps scrolling his shoulders, like he was talking about the weather, like he didn't just told a man with serious mental issues the name of a man who is, if not directly responsible for his family's deaths, close and directly connected to the murderer himself.

"Crews, I swear to God…" Donovan doesn't end the sentence, for many reasons. First, she really doesn't know what she was exactly going to say, second, she is cut off by a scream full of rage and agony.

"JANE! DON'T YOU DARE DOING THIS TO ME! IF YOU'LL GO, I'LL NOT ALLOW YOU TO COME BACK AND..."

Lisbon is walking quickly outside the room, following Patrick, who's walking even faster than her, fast and sure, serious, ready.

Both Anne and Lisbon see that glimpses in his eyes, in those dark blue orbs, and are scared. They've seen before, Lisbon in him, Anne in many others. It's blood calling, vengeance asking to be delivered. It's a man who thinks of himself like of a dead man walking, alone and desperate, in the dark.

It's a man who can't see for the love of God's what is right before his eyes, a second chance, a chance at redemption, a chance at love.

"You knew this day was going to come, Lisbon" he calmly says, so calm it's scarier than what they saw in his eyes "You knew I was going to hunt him down. You knew I was going to find him. You knew I was going to cut him open and watch him die slowly and painfully. I told you so, many, many times. I gave you time to adjust to my plan. If you didn't get that I don't care about anything but killing him with my bare hands, if you didn't understand that the only woman for me was Angela, if you've so stupid and childish to believe I could actually feel… something…. Anything… for you… then, Lisbon, I'd suggest changing work. You're too delusional and naïve to be a good agent. Maybe you should listen to Hightower and…" The slap is regretted as soon as it is delivered by Lisbon, right on Jane's face, leaving the red mark of her hand on the tender and slightly tanned skin.

"Jane, I…I'm…" she says, with uncertainty, taking a step back, not knowing if break eye contact or not.

"No, Lisbon, you're not, and mostly, you shouldn't. To be completely honest, I'm waiting for another one in a while, because, dear" he says, grinning evilly and maliciously, taking her for the chin to force her to look at him, just few inches between their faces as Patrick holds her with brute force "this is not about me being unworthy you. YOU are unworthy my time and attention. Why should I settle down with you, how could I, considering that I used to have the most beautiful creature of this world, and that she HAD GIVEN ME a daughter as beautiful as her? How could I, Lisbon? You want to know the truth, Lisbon? You'd never be even worth warming up my bed, figures my heart" he releases her, still with an evilly look on his features, and turns up on his heels, leaving the room, while Lisbon stands still, in shock, silently sobbing and doing her best to fight the tears. At few meters away, Anne looks the same as her, even if she is not crying. She is in shock, because she can't believe the man has just said such venomous words to a woman who's clearly enamored with him, but mostly, because it feels just… weird. She has understood Jane loves Lisbon back, why should he say something like that to her, then?

"Jane, please, don't go, whenever you're planning to go, don't leave. If you will, I'm not sure we'll be able to take you back, if _I'll_ be able to take you back. Please, don't ruin it, don't break us. Please, we're your family, please, please, just, for once…" the CBI team leader whispers at closed eyes between sobs, even if she is well aware that he can no longer hear her, even if she is well aware that he'll never hear her. He can't, because he already out, and because he is gone, gone from their lives, form her life, gone from the place.

_Patrick Jane left many years ago. He is gone since the day he come back home to find his daughter killed with a downward blow to her neck, his wife slowly tortured, her blood sued to paint her toenails and an image that should inspire happiness but that, instead, will torture them for the rest of their lives, each one of them. He has lost his wife and daughter. Lisbon is a target because she leads the investigations, because they dared to get closer, and she has lost people she knew, people she cared about, like Bosco, she even get close to die herself by the end of one of Red John's friends; Anne has lost a friend, and even Crews is not a target, and, apparently, Red John may have part of the plan to frame him, or, at least, his "network" has…_

While looking at Lisbon, unable to know what to say, because, even as smart and receptive as she is, she doesn't know what words she is supposed to say, Anne realizes two things.

The first one is that Patrick probably said those words to Lisbon to hurt her, yes, but only because he hoped to keep her at a safe distance, he thought he was protecting her by hurting her, _Idiot, _he thought he was going to remove her from the equation, switch Red John's focus away from her.

The second one is that Charlie is gone as well; she doesn't know if he is following Patrick or if he is actually with the blonde mentalist from the CBI, the fact still remains. Charlie Crews is gone; a man who has a vendetta against Rayborn like now Patrick Jane has as well, both men with nothing to lose, both submerged in darkness, because they've lost everything they had to lose.

In different ways, they've both lose their families- Jane has lost them physically while Charlie has lost the closest thing he had to a family, his best friend, his wife, and one of their daughters, to death, his wife to divorce, and the dream of the children they wanted to have together at the same time, and the pain of seeing him, innocent, in jail, of being unable to get close to him had killed his mother, the only one he cared about and really cared about him in return.

Jane lost his liberty because of the pain and of the inability to connect to anyone with endangering them, while Charlie lost it to prison first and to the inability to fully feel again, the inability to connect with a word that hasn't waited for him and has gone on during those 12 years.

_Shit. _Anne knows it's bad. Lisbon knows it's bad, even if she is just aware of a good half of the things that happened in Detective Crews' life, and just because of the gossip. They are together, they are going together to face the man responsible for the murder of their families, they are going to face the man who caused them so much pain, and even if Jane has nothing directly against Rayburn, he is still a mean to an end, a piece in a chess-game, he is still his only link to Red John, and he'll do anything in his power to stop Red John, and if in order to get Red John he'll have to kill his man, he'll not care, they both know it.

Even if Anne knows that he'll regret it, and she knows he knows. She knows she saw a sting of sufferance while he was hurting Lisbon, while he was destroying her, killing her softly from the inside.

_Breaking someone's heart could easily kill them, physically. _

"We need… to track them…" Lisbon finally says, but without moving, still closing her eyes, her voice still a whisper and her eyes still teary.

"I…I may know how…how to know where they…they could… they could go to…" Ted says with hesitation, and for the first time both Anne and Lisbon realizes that they haven't been alone with the two men: Ted has been there, Cho and Rigsby are there.

_And nobody thought about stopping them._

Both Lisbon and Donovan look at Ted, with a mix of rage and expectation, even if, deep down, Anne has a small idea of where he wants to go with his speech. "If they want to find where Rayborn exactly is, they'll probably try to ask to his security specialist first. Puryer used to know everything there was to know about the man. She used to put him out of troubles, she is better than a lawyer when she wants. Also because lawyers usually don't erase evidences of your crimes, or spy on people breaking into their places or faking to seduce their teacher who happens to be the guy who shares the house with said other people and…"

"Mr. Earley, can you or cannot you contact this security specialist?"

As a response to Lisbon's enraged, hysterical, shouted question, the only thing Ted does is taking his mobile from a pocket and dealing quickly a number, turning his back to the females and, sometimes, sending scared glances in their direction. "Amanda, dear, yes, it's me…" he starts, a bit scared and unsure. "Yes, I'm aware you paid your dues, and I'm grateful you reunited me and Olivia, but…" he pauses, takes a big breath and then goes on, his voice surer and louder. "I don't care. Charlie and I both know your secrets, and, mostly, we know the secret of your most important client. The only think I want to know is…" he stops midsentence, and, nodding with head and voice, after a while, closes the call, and turns towards them. "Apparently, Charlie just called her. She told him where Rayborn is, and she told me as well"

"And she gave us the information, so easily? But it doesn't make any sense!" Lisbon tells almost hysterically, shaking her head in disbelief "if she wants to protect her client, she shouldn't give up the security details!"

"Maybe she is connected as well with Red John, and she wants for us all to end up in a trap" Chris says, making a face that screams that this is not the option she believes in "or maybe they are scared of Jane and Charlie…"

"Jane is all talk, I know it. The only time he has killed was to save me, and he has been traumatized for MONTHS. He'd never kill, especially not if this someone could bring him to Red John." Lisbon answers her, deep into her thoughts, then, pauses and turns towards Ted, who's now cornered, both physically and verbally "But maybe, she is aware of something we aren't, something Crews did. Tell me, Ted, why should such a powerful man be scared of your friend?"

"Agent Lisbon, I swear I don't know what you are talking about… Charlie is a Zen master, he'd never hurt a fly, and…"

"This is about that case the whole Robbery and Homicide unit knows about but never actually talk about it, isn't it? This is about Roman Nevikov's disappearance, right? That's why Rayborn is scared of. He is scared about ending up like him… "Anne gets closer and closer to Ted, looking at in the eyes. She is scared, and for many reasons, because, if what she thinks it's true, then… Then, the man she used to love, the man she trusted with her life is a murderer, and she hadn't seen it coming. She has slept with a murderer. She has fantasized about building a future with a killer, about having children with THAT MAN, a man she thought she knew, and a man she didn't know a single thing about, apparently.

And, right, she didn't care about it, about him, nay longer, the only thing she can think of is that she has been blind, and stupid, and that everything she has felt for him is now gone. "Ted, tell us where Puryer sent them."

"Even if he tells us, why should he see us? If this man is as powerful and rich as you claim him to be, he'll have a hell of a security" Lisbon tells at crossed arms and lifted eyebrows, thinking, her voice low, almost as she was thinking at loud, talking only with herself.

"Rayborn knew we'd assumed it was through him that Red John got to us, to this room in particular. He is playing with us, they both are."

"He is waiting for us. That's a trap, and those two demented idiots just run into it at open arms!" Lisbon almost screams out in frustration, emitting, at the end of the sentence, a sound that seems a lot like a grunt. She is pacing in a small amount of space, just few meters, even if she could do so in the entire space of the gigantic mansion, but she isn't. She simply keeps walking in front of Donovan, keeping grunting with either both hands on her hips or one on her hip and the other one massaging her forehead or pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Yes, but… he knew Ted could make the connection as well, so, I think…" Donovan starts, contemplative, but a bit unsure at the same time. She is scared, she has to admit it. She is scared for Patrick Jane, for his friends, she is scared for herself, and a (small) part of her is scared for Charlie as well, even if…

She can't believe it, but, somehow, deep, deep down in her soul, she is kind of… _relieved. _She is relieved because if it's Rayburn connecting Charlie to red John, that it's not just her fault. Of course, there's the little fact that, without her in his life, he'd be just a target to Rayburn and not a crazy and bloody serial killer as well, but, still, she can't help but think that, this time, it's not her fault, it's not someone else paying for her mistakes. It's not Michael all over again.

"…that they are waiting for the whole crew to end this charade. For some reason, Red John has decided this is going to be his and Jane's endgame. He is trying to force us to move quicker, he is trying to make us move towards him, that's why he targeted you and Detective Crews, because this way we were going to be active participants…" Lisbon ends the sentence, and then, taking a big breath, shifts back into leader mode "Mr. Earley, I'd want you to stay here, in case those demented idiots decided to come back. Rigsby, goes back to the central, and informs that I want to know where and when any vehicle connected to Jane and Crews is seen, and tell van Pelt to try to track their mobiles. Cho, you're with us, but not in plain sight. The longer they think we're not gonna do this as a team, the bigger our advantage."

Nobody gets to ask what Lisbon and Donovan are going to do _exactly_. They are going to take back Jane and Crews. Lisbon is going to take back _her demented idiot_; she is going to stop him from killing someone, from get killed, whatever it takes.

_Because she is love and this is exactly what love feels like._

_

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_

So, two chapters, I know. AND Be ready, because this is the rate is gonna go from now on, untill the end, because I've decided to end it before Christams time, because I'll be able to get my vacations only AFTER Christmas time, at the beginning of january- even if I'm not sure yet, it could be the beginning, or the end. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure to be over with at least this one, and this way, I'll get to finally end When LA meets NY (CLoser) and, maybe, just maybe, The evil that men do (here), that'are on hiatus from too long... (no, I'm not evne gonna try to end mWLR Chronicles. I just started to hate the show, right now I'm even questioning why I loved Instant star at all...)


	8. 7

Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just **_"write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed bu the light of reason..." _**(No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one fo the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...).

Mega, super, ultra Author's note...: I have the evil that men do on hiatus since this summer,I'm well aware of that. And I'm terribly late with the translation of my fanfics from English into Italian (I still have to understand how is possible that I think and write in English, and I'm pretty unable to make my stories made sense into Italian. Mah.), and I'm even terribly late in writing Blackdragon, if you know what I'm talking about... but here I am, with a new multichapter. the rating is T for security measures, even if I'm not sure I'll ever need it, and, just for the record:

this is dedicated to the talented PetiteJ, nice writer and amazing artist of the mentalist, and mostly JISBON, universe. this story took life a while ago via MSN, we ended up discussing this possibility, and I ended up telling her "I think I'll write soemthing about it, you know?"

This one is a bit long-over 6000 words, but broken in two, it wasn't going to make too sense.

I'm asking for your forgiveness, because with the cases but mostly, in ENDING THE CASES, i'm not so good, so...

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CHAPTER 7

_We are walking right into a trap. Maybe it's not even where Patrick and Charlie are going to. Maybe we are wrong, maybe I'm wrong, and Puryer IS associated to Red John… _

It's a single thought, but, still, it's a shared thought, it's something both Lisbon and Donovan are not just considering, but something they are fully aware of, like, somehow, they know this is gonna be the endgame.

Whatever will happen, blood will be spilled before the day will be over. It could be Patrick and Charlie's, it could be theirs, and it could be the one of their "enemies". They don't know it yet, but they know, they feel, someone is going to die.

And the only thing they can hope, as they approach the building in the financial district where they've been told the two men and Rayburn are, speeding and breaking almost the entire street code of the State of California on Crews' last car, a pitch black Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, borrowed by his residence -it appeared that the detective and Jane had decided to share the consultant's vehicle, something that Lisbon is kind of happy for. The baby blue old Citroen DS doesn't exactly pass unobserved, and in a city like Los Angeles, especially a part full of wonnabe millionaires AND millionaires, this car, like everyone used by Crews, would just be one among millions.

"This isn't really about _them. _This is about… well, I don't know what game this Rayborn is playing with you, but with Jane…with Jane, is about _me, _and the team, and everyone he cares about."Lisbon finally ménages to say, still looking in front of her and not to Donovan, who's driving for better knowledge of both the city and of the car. She'd make a comment about how it seems Crews allowed her to drive his car, something Jane never did, because, apparently, the old Citroen is a precious gem, but she doesn't, because it's inappropriate for the time, and it's inappropriate because Donovan and Crews were into a relationship, from what she understood, they were kind of living together between their places, while she and Jane, as he has said, himself, are nothing, will always be nothing, because she is what and who she is and he can have whoever he wants, and he doesn't want her.

Even if she is the one doing the driving, Donovan is tensing as well behind the wheel, for fear of the road but mostly because of the many, too many possible outcomes.

_Someone could easily get killed. _Lisbon thinks while holding her breath and fighting the urge to close her eyes.

"The pseudo-psych Red John took and brainwashed. She and Patrick were…" Donovan stops, she doesn't knowing exactly how Lisbon could feel while hearing about Jane's supposed love life, or maybe knowing it too well, since she has been through that, she knows how hearing about how the man you had a story with is sleeping around feels, how knowing that the man you are having a story with used to sleep around, and used to have amazing and beautiful women, stars, models, actress, playmates and so on. "She and Patrick were…getting closer" at the end, she opts for this exit, not sure if it still hurts or not, and it does, because as long as he got closer and closer to Kristina, he alienated himself from the team, from Lisbon. She'd like to tell the dark haired woman what she thinks, what she believes, of her relationship with Jane, of what Patrick thinks of her, about how he feels for his "superior officer", but it would be pointless, for many reasons.

It's not her place for talking for Patrick Jane, because, as much as she can understands people, and she has improved after the tragedy of few years back, she can't say for sure if he is actually ready to move on. She doubts it, chances are he'll allow himself to face reality and heal only once Red John will be out of the picture, otherwise, Lisbon would get hurt, and he'd never be able to heal from this one.

Second, there's a good possibility Lisbon would never believe her. She'll probably think her words are out of pity and not because she has (almost) actual knowledge of the fact.

Third, Lisbon is already too emotionally involved as it is. They both know it's gonna be hell in there, and Lisbon needs to be as lucid as they need. One of them has to be at least a bit objective, and Anne Donovan can't, not with Patrick Jane, her recently discovered half-brother involved, and not with Charlie Crews involved, a man she had considered building a family with, because, even if Rayburn is the link between Red John and Crews, she is still sure, again, that, wasn't she in the detective's life, he'd be out of danger.

After all, hadn't he decided to give on his plan for revenge before all of this, before Patrick Jane showed him an opening? And mostly… what's really Patrick Jane's plan?

Actually, Lisbon thinks, unable to fight the tears back any longer, holding with all the strength she has the cross around her neck, as she has probably never done before, it's not about what his plan is, since they are now all well aware of his intentions towards the serial killer, but if he'll be able to follow into his search for vengeance, if he'll be both mentally and physically able to do it… will he get killed before even trying? Will he stop and stare at the man responsible for the death of his beloved ones? Will he follow his plan until the very end?

"What?" Lisbon asks her as she feels and hears Donovan gulping near her. It's such a heavy sigh; she could have heard it even across a crowded room.

"Nothing, just… I'm not used to manual shift. Damn those Italian cars…" she tries to fake a smile, but Lisbon can feels something is wrong with the younger detective, she knows she is trying to let her quiet and calm and relaxed, as much as possible, at least.

Parking in front of the building owned by Rayburn, without carrying that the car is actually in the middle of the road and that in less than half an hour the traffic will get extremely heavy in that neighborhood, Anne preys that Lisbon never heard that Charlie never leaves without his trusted knife, that he is as good with that as much as with his own gun, and even more ready to sue it than his own fire-weapon.

Somehow, she feels that Lisbon wouldn't be that "calm" if she knew that Jane is with someone who carries a knife and will not have a problem lending it to the consultant…

"If Rayburn trusts this security specialist with his secrets as you claim him to do and if he is connected with Red John… it means she knows of it, she knows of this and helped them to set up this whole thing" Lisbon starts, as they are in front of the building, Cho at a safe distance, not in sight; she runs both her hands through her hair, and shivers in fear, almost unable to goes on with the words she knows she has to say "Red John isn't a stupid. He follows every move of his playthings. He learns to understand them; he can foresee our very moves, even before we could actually think of them. He knew that knowing Jane's position someone form my team would be here, likely me."

"And he knew that, with Charlie involved, my sense of responsibility and of guilt would eventually force me to come here." Anne pauses, taking a big breath, her eyes focused on the heavy and pompous door, her hand unconsciously on the holster of her caliber 9 while she reflects on Lisbon's words, both new and old ones, how it wasn't about Jane or Crews, but, mostly, her and everyone Patrick Jane could get closer to. "The plan isn't to kill them… this may be the endgame, but Red John's not planning on killing Patrick, not at first…"

"Because forcing him to look at the people he cares for, me, and his recently discovered own blood, cruelly and slowly as it has been with Jane's wife, will be much, much worse for him…"

"It would mean a life of sufferance, guilt, shame, insanity, desperation and regrets. He would really be a dead man walking"

"We know we are walking right into a trap, but… if a learnt a couple of things about the man, is that he thinks of himself as better than us, smarter" Lisbon pauses, shifting her eyes from the door to Donovan and so on "I'm sure he doesn't know we have figured out that this is a trap, and, mostly, I'm sure he'll never think of Cho being close. He'll think that, as always, being this a dangerous situation I forced the rest of the team to stay out of this, preferring to handle my own personal problem, Jane, on my own. Every time I got into troubles, Jane handled the situation alone. Every time he got into troubles, I was the one handling the situation alone. He doesn't have any reason to believe this is going to be different. They don't have any reason to think that we aren't here for something different from saving Rayborn from Crews and Jane!"

_Oh, joy. As this could actually change a thing… I'm so sure now we are not going to die!_

With wide eyes, the two women finally starts walk in direction of the door, hands on their guns, well aware that the bouncers could say no to their request of entering, but doubting it: this is a game, a game that's been prepared perfectly, a game that requires their presence.

So, no, they are not surprised when the two body-builders at the left and right of the door, dressed in total black, open them like they were guests.

"Mr. Rayborn's office is in the attic. The elevator is right in front of you. They are all waiting for you. We've been asked to escort you there." As from nowhere, other two guys appear at their side, cornering Lisbon and Madison, following the women inside, their hands on something hidden behind their right ear, probably a communication device "you have to give us your guns and your mobiles. You'll not need them in there." In front of the elevator, in complete silence, completely frightened by the realization that they are in the cove of the wolves, they empty their holsters, pass him what he craves, sweating coldly and as pale as never before. Again, Lisbon's hand goes almost without giving it a though to the cross around her neck, second time in few minutes, an act she has done just few times in the past, and even less before meeting Jane, before having to constantly worry about a man who's supposed to be an adult but behaves like a five years old, best case scenario. "All of them, detective. And please, hands up. We don't want you to play nay tricks on us." When the bodyguard says so, completely calm and placid like he was taking about the weather, Lisbon is dumb, not merely playing it. She has more than one gun, sure, just a couple of them only in her personal car (ok, as Jane has pointed out once, she has actually three guns in her car), and another two or three at her place, but on her person, just the service gun, as the rules request.

_And Donovan is definitely Jane's sister in all. _If they'd not be in such a life or death situation, she'd laugh, looking at Donovan, extremely irritated, kneeling and extracting a minuscule gun, an old revolver with probably just a couple of fires, leaving another minuscule holster on her left ankle. Yes, they'd both laugh at the irony of this, would they not going to meet Mickey Rayborn, and, probably from the guy's words, Red John as well.

_It's the endgame. _They keep repeating silently to themselves, until they hear the familiar "ping", signaling their arrival, and, few seconds later, the doors are opened, directly into the vastness and richness and boldness of Mickey Rayborn's office, something that an expert could exchange for a reproduction of a Luis XVI palace: marbles, silk, velvet, brocade, real gold, paintings, statues… and even a small fountain with e recycling cycle in a corner, and, behind an in-style desk, sitting on something that resembles more a throne than a chair, HIM, Mikey Rayborn, grinning evilly, happy and satisfied, feet on the desk and hands crossed behind his head.

"Jane, Crews" Lisbon hisses as she gets closer and closer to them, hands still up, the bodyguard pointing a gun at her back, until she reaches them followed by Donovan, and they both sits between the two men, in front of the desk, trying to not look at what's on the lucid wood.

_There's a gun waiting only to be used, and those demented idiots haven't tried to use it against Rayborn yet. _

"Agent Lisbon, it's a pleasure meeting you. I've been told so many things about you…" Rayborn says with fake pleasure, grinning like a predator to his prey, sending shivers of fear through the Agents' spine, making her actually tremble, and even Jane silently and emotionally taking hold of her hand doesn't help it. "And, I have to say, the same goes for you, Detective Donovan… we've been made aware of your existence only recently, but we've looked at you, checked on everything you did. I have to tell you, you surprised us all. Such a secretive and hidden person, who allowed such a man like Patrick Jane to get close to her, and in a matter of days…" Like to prove his point, Rayborn leaves the desk, and, turning, he opens a piece of furniture that should contain a bar but that, instead, it hides many screens, each one of them tuned in on a different camera, on a different place, all real places, few images from the present, others recorded over the course of the last few months… few of them are known to Lisbon, others to Jane, others to Anne, others to Crews… Jane can see his brother in law, Daniel Ruskin, walking outside a nice suburban home, three days prior; Lisbon's attention is focused on her brother Thomas, working behind a computer in his office; Anne can see her late friend walking with his current boyfriend the day before the storm, and Charlie sees an image of a time he was still with Anne, an image that he knows will destroy whatever semblance of a relationship they still had just in the morning… it's a video feed of him and his ex-wife, extremely remarried with children ex-wife, same ex-wife who divorced him because she thought he was a killer; it's a video feed of the two of them in a motel bed, and neither of the people in the room are stupid. It's quite clear that Charlie Crews isn't having sex with his ex-wife.

No, it is way worse, considering he was with someone else, considering he is trying to convince this someone else to come back with him that nothing happened between him and Jennifer…. It's way worse because _he is making love to his ex-wife._

"Yes, my dear ladies, this is way your men didn't try to kill me, because, as you can see, I'm controlling everyone you cared and care about. One wrong move and they are all dead... But" he says as he goes in direction of a door "you'll eventually get to use the gun, nevertheless. There are two bullets in it, and it's up to you, while I'll be away for the next... fifteen minutes or so, to decide who's going to die. Would you reach your beloved family, Mister Jane? Or will you decided to spare the sufferance to your blood and the one you care the most about?" Saying so, he leaves, allowing them the liberty to talk freely and decided upon their fate.

"In case I hadn't been clear enough, dear, I didn't want you to interfere with _this" _Jane hisses, turning enough to look at Lisbon at his right, then again to focus on something behind the desk, a kind f painting, a giantography of some kind of page of some old book "I thought you understood, Lisbon!"

"The only thing I understood is that you can be a bastard when you want, Jane!" she hisses in return punching him in the arm, getting as an answer an "ouch" from the man and seeing him rubbing the hurting and burning part of anatomy.

"What the hell were you and this idiot thinking about? Were you really considering the idea of killing Rayborn?"

"Yes" Charlie answers with an honest smile, while Jane grins of his usual grin.

"Of course I wasn't considering it, Lisbon dear. I'd never kill Mr. Rayburn. Torturing him I could do" he shakes his shoulders like it was nothing, and Lisbon really feels like hitting him and hurting him "but the murder is a fate I'm reserving for Red John" he ends his sentences, but… there's something in his voice. The words may be the usual ones he uses, but the tone, that's what different. The tone is hesitant.

"I can't believe that I trust you! You should be… I should have left you rot in jail, that's what!" she screams, angry, almost in tears. She has done her best from avoiding it, but, still...

She just hopes that her presence will be enough for Jane to stop before it will be too late.

"Why are you so focused on this painting?" While saying so, Anne stands, and reaches the painting, skimming over the glass surface, and studying it with curious eyes, being studied as well by Lisbon and Crews' questioning gaze, shifting from her to Jane, and by the man himself, who seems to be both enraged and annoyed by her sudden realization of his interest in the piece of art "It's a reproduction of the original page of the first copy of the volume featuring _The Tyger _by William Blake. He used to do the art himself" Anne explained, turning to focus not on Jane, but on Lisbon instead, who was hurting again the consultant, but with more force and more than once.

"Jane" Lisbon says quietly, crossing her arms and looking into his eyes with an expression that seems to suggest that she was contemplating using one of the bullets on him "Did you forget to tell me something?"

"Lisbon, dear, I don't know what you are talking about" he answers her, with his usual grin, a grin that, in any other occasion, would be welcomed, and would receive as an answer a blushing on Lisbon's side, but NOT now.

"Jane, I'm going to tell you once, and I'm not going to repeat it ever again" she tells him, madly quiet "I know when you lie to me. I know you lied to me about your encounter with Red John, I know he told you something. And I'm almost positive that Johnson did tell you something, and that it was about Red John"

"Lisbon, really, how many times am I supposed to tell you that…?"

"Shut up, Jane!" she snapped, looking in front of herself at the painting where Donovan still stands, talking with Jane but not looking at him "Jane, I know when you lie to me. You may not be aware of this fact, but I know you, I _understand _you. I know you were keeping things from me, and I decided to wait, I gave you time, I trusted you and this is what I got in return" her voice is resigned, and again she is holding her cross while silent tears are running through her features.

"I just… I wanted to protect you, Lisbon, you and the team. I didn't want for you all to got hurt because…because you care for me." he admits, almost defeated, as, sobbing, he holds Lisbon's shoulders, rolling it and feeling better than in weeks when she relaxes into him. "He… Red John, he told me that poetry. I thought it was some kind of evidence, a clue to his identity, I analyzed it over and over again, and I found nothing that could bring me closer to his identity!" he takes a big breath, holding her with more force, taking courage "than, while he was still in the hospital, Johnson regained consciousness for an instant, long enough to tell me two words…"

"Words from the poetry, something only you and Red John and someone connected to him could know…" Lisbon whispers in disbelief, looking in front of herself, running her hands through her hair and on her face, then, turns towards Jane and hits him again "You idiot! How many times did I tell you I don't need your protection? How many times did I tell you to trust me as I trust you? How many times did I tell you to stop this "I'm always going to save you Lisbon" nonsense?"

"I didn't want for you to go through this, Teresa!" he snaps, screaming, facing her, standing, calling her with her given name, a rare occurrence, something that doesn't go unobserved by the others, and hearing the sound on his lips forces Teresa to face the fact that it takes her breath away. "I didn't want to lose you! I didn't want to lose the team because I'm selfish! Can't you see it? You, Detective Crews and Anne are all going to die because of me! You're dying because I'm a horrible person, because I'm selfish, because I'm a glutton! It's my fault, Teresa" he says, crying and sobbing in her arms "It's my fault they are dead… I killed them, Teresa; I killed Angela and Charlotte…. I killed my baby girl...it's my entire fault, all my fault…"

While they hold each other, Jane crying desperate, holding her like for dear life, breathing in everything that's her to remember it in the future, Lisbon realizes that, in almost five years, Patrick Jane has never been so true, so honest with her. for the first time, she sees the man for who and what he is, no masks, no tricks, no games or manipulations, just him, a broken man, a man destroyed by sufferance and solitude; it's like having a glimpse of who and what he was after what happened, of him in that empty white room where Sophie Miller tried her best to heal him.

_But there was just so much she could do, so much drugs could do… the wound was too fresh. He couldn't heal; he still isn't healed yet…_

"It's not your fault" both Jane and Lisbon are awakened from their reverie from Anne's shaking voice. The woman is still standing behind the desk, closed fists, and she is crying, she is crying _desperately _while looking at them in the eyes, blue eyes lost in blue eyes "You were… you are a good person, and you didn't kill them, it's not your fault. You can't blame you, because if you do...then… then, it means that… I'm not better than you; it means that it's my fault if Mike is dead. You couldn't know what he was going to do, you just… maybe you didn't do it with the best intentions, but you wanted to help. And I, I thought I _knew _Robert. He was my…our friend. He was _his _partner. We've grown up together. He… he come to have breakfast with us. He played poker every Saturday with Mike. We watched football every Friday… and he killed my husband! He killed my friend and I'm supposed to understand and know people and how could I miss it? He killed his _friend _with a whole revolver in the back, and….and framed a kid for it and…. And I miss it? I miss that he was dirty? That he was enraged with Mike? That he wanted _me? _Don't..." she pauses, regaining force and control, and no more crying "if you say it's your fault, it means that what happened to Mike is mine, and if it is, then, I'm not worth loving again, I'm not worth being alive, and I know it's not the case. I did what I could, I'm a good person, I'm a good detective, but we all make mistakes, sometimes bigger, more grave, sometimes others pay the price, but we overcome them, we get better, we improve, we learn, and we honor who's no longer with us, doing what they would for us to do" 

"Well, moving on isn't even an option right now" Patrick suddenly says, opening and closing his palms and focusing on them, like to focus his attention on something to not think about what Anne told him, and what is going to happen, or, maybe, thinking too much about what is going to happen. "There are just two bullets and, girls, I want to be honest here, and Lisbon knows I'm honest. I'd rather kill you with my hands then having to look at them torturing you."

"Charlie never left prison. You never left prison" Anne says in a whisper, looking a bit enraged, somehow with the same expression Lisbon had before with Jane, at Charlie "and you never, ever listen to Reese!"

"AC, what the hell do you mean?" he pauses, and then, smiles, hit by sudden illumination. "Oh, you mean that I still have those nasty habits that Reese tried desperately to force me to get rid of but that I actually couldn't!"

Donovan looks at Crews, patting a point on his hip under the large grey LAPD T-Shirt, frustrated, unable to understand what the hell is wrong with the man, how he could forget something so important in such a vital situation.

She is still reflecting on this, trying to bring to her mind the most suited expression for this particular line of events, the door of the elevator find itself opened again, allowing to two men to enter and reach them. One is Mikey Rayborn himself, still grinning, but less, with a weird expression on his face, and the other…

They don't know his name, but they all are quite sure they've seen him before. He is not that handsome, but he has that certain something that brings you to respect him, to be afraid of him, to follow him. He isn't that young, definitely at least ten years older than Jane, he has dark salt and pepper hair and almost black eyes; he is in good shape, dressed with cure and richness, he is quite sophisticated.

And he is playing with a butcher knife in his gloved hands… and Jane shivers, holding with more strength Teresa, trying to hide her from their sight.

"Mr. Jane, I'm glad to see you again" he says with hose voice that Jane has already heard, but this time is pure, and not "hidden" and modified by the mask. He is still grinning, if possible, he is grinning even more "Oh, I see you've not decided with two of you are going to leave us. I thought you wanted to spare your lovely agent Lisbon and your precious little sister the sufferance your wife and daughter went through…"

His hold on Lisbon gets stronger by the second, he is rigid and motionless, his breathing and his heartbeats are escalating, he can feels the bile rising, the breath dying in his throat, but the only thing that he really feels is… is the woman at his side, the cold sweat on her hand, how cold she is, how she is shaking.

She is the only thing, the only person, he is carrying about right now, it's like they are the only human beings in the whole universe, Anne's not there, Crews is not there, and Rayborn is not there. Not even Red John is there. She is the only one who matters. This is about protecting her; this isn't about killing Red John. He can't do that, not with her at his side. Alone, he could have a slight possibility of having the physical and mental energy to carry on his search for vengeance, but with Lisbon at his side… he could easily take the gun and fire the two bullets, but he can't, not with Lisbon at his side. It'd be cold-blood murder, she'd have to arrest him, and even with Red John dead, she'd be destroyed, broken beyond repair.

And he can't do that to her, not to the woman who saved his life, his soul. Teresa Lisbon deserves to be happy. He deserves to be happy, and they'll be, together or not, once this nightmare will be over.

Hoping that the chivalry will come soon enough to save them all before the actual nightmare could began.

Charlie, his hand on his hip, tenses as his eyes fall on Anne, who's against the painting of the Tyger, but not scared… she doesn't seem scared, at first sight. Of course, he knows she does, but he knows her. Anne Donovan is curious. Right now, she is more worried about finding out the truth that bothering thinking about the inevitable outcomes.

"Let's see, which one of you will be the first one?" he contemplates looking at the women, and getting closer and closer to them. "Mmm… tell me, Mikey, since you'll no longer have to use this office, do you mind if I'll leave my mark here? Or do you think I should paint it where I'll abandon their cadavers? It could be an interesting change of plans. The police and your CBI friends will be thrilled by this!"

He skims over the tender skin of Anne's neck with the blade, allowing a single tear of blood to leave the small wound. He breaths into the scent of the liquid; he nuzzles her neck, licking the warm crimson fluid, form the wound and from the blade as well.

Anne shivers, tenses, but never stops looking in front of her, never gives up the control she has on herself. "I'm not going to be scared of this. I'm not going to be scared of you. _Rayborn _is scared of you, and I'm better than you"

"Mikey respects me!" He pushes, with rage and hate, the knife deeper enough, and looks at her in the eyes. Charlie is almost up, his hand still on the hip, and both Jane and Lisbon seem ready to do something about it, even if, probably, Rayborn is armed and Anne would be dead before they could do something. Besides, Jane can see her eyes, and they are telling him, them… She is stalling, buying them time. And he should get along.

"No, she is right" he interrupts, grinning like the Cheshire cat he can be "Rayborn probably did respected you, at the beginning, but now, he is just scared of you. You helped him out, and now he has to help you if he doesn't want to get into troubles or end up dead. Let me guess" he says pointing at both of them, still grinning "it's something connected with that giant robbery Crews told me about. He helped you turning into this great crime lord you are, and now you have to pay the price!"

"You are the tiger "Anne says, as the holds of the knife is getting stronger and stronger, but never giving up talking "you are the emissary of a higher power. You think that the God that made you isn't the same as the one that made the lamb. You don't see the lamb as the innocent soul, you see it like a sinner, like someone who has to be punished, no, not punished… we are all sinners waiting to come back on the right way. You hurt us just because through pain we can achieve our real potential. You didn't want to punish Patrick de facto, only teaching him and who was like him, a lesson; you wanted to make them better so that the world could be a better place. You are a protector and a savior, but, still" she continues, grinning, almost laughing, Red John and Rayborn's eyes on her, enraged ones and scared the others "Around you, you just have killers and mobsters and frauds. Or this is exactly the reason you are keeping them with you? Do you tell them they can redeem themselves? I bet you do. And when it doesn't work, like in Mickey's case, you blackmail them with what you have." She pauses again, daring Red John to look into her eyes "please, tell me I'm right. I absolutely love being right!"

Then, it all happens incredibly quickly, so quickly that, later, Jane will have problems remembering it, or trying to force the images into his mind to remember what actually is happening.

The knife held by Red John hurts Anne, deeper. Charlie jumps from his chair, jumps the desk, and is suddenly on Red John, with a big knife, similar to the one used by military, or fishermen, but completely white, that it hardly seems made of metal (later on, he'll learn that the knife is made of porcelain, a reminder of his time into the prison, where a metal knife could not escape the detectors, but a porcelain one, could) and he is struggling with the killer for control, both on the soil, while Anne is cornered against a wall, her hand on the wound on the neck, nothing fatal but something that hurts nevertheless, and that keeps bleeding. Later on, he'll remember that Rayborn is still in the same corner, pointing at the two men on the pavement, not knowing who he should fire to, or if maybe he should shot Lisbon and Jane to get back Crews' attention. Later, he'll remember Lisbon forcing him under the desk, covering herself as well while, once taken the gun that was supposed to kill her and Anne, she fires the two shots at the former policeman turned mobster, hitting him not fatally, but in the right shoulder. Later, he'll remember that Rayborn will be on the soil, trying to get n hold of his gun back, and that Cho, come from nowhere with SWAT agents and few guys from Crews' team, will point his gun at his skull. Later, he'll remember Rigsby and Captain Tidwell separating Crews and Red John, noticing they are both hurt and bleeding…

Later, as the ambulances drive away, Jane stands still where he is, on the pavement of the office, with Lisbon at his back, holding and embracing him for behind, silently crying, not allowing the man to see the tears-tears of relief because it's finally over, of happiness because this man she loves with all her heart can finally move on, and of sadness because she knows as well that whatever relationship they had is over, now that he no longer has a reason to stay with them.

Until, suddenly, for the first time in eight years, Jane allows himself to do something he hasn't done in a while, something he has always knew he was going to do on this day, was he going to survive…

Finally, he falls on his knees and collapses in tears, with Lisbon still holding him, cuddling him like he was a child, and trying desperately to breathe in his scent, committing it to her memory, because she knows the truth...

Soon, very soon, he'll leave her, soon, very soon, all she'll have left of him will be memories, and she wants, and needs, to remember this day, the day it ended, the day they finally were out of the shadow of the sick killer, the day Patrick Jane finally is free…


	9. 8

Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just **_"write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed bu the light of reason..." _**(No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one fo the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...).

Mega, super, ultra Author's note...: I have the evil that men do on hiatus since this summer,I'm well aware of that. And I'm terribly late with the translation of my fanfics from English into Italian (I still have to understand how is possible that I think and write in English, and I'm pretty unable to make my stories made sense into Italian. Mah.), and I'm even terribly late in writing Blackdragon, if you know what I'm talking about... but here I am, with a new multichapter. the rating is T for security measures, even if I'm not sure I'll ever need it, and, just for the record:

this is dedicated to the talented PetiteJ, nice writer and amazing artist of the mentalist, and mostly JISBON, universe. this story took life a while ago via MSN, we ended up discussing this possibility, and I ended up telling her "I think I'll write soemthing about it, you know?"

Aanndd...fluffy!

* * *

CHAPTER 8

It takes more than a week for the CBI, FBI and the various police departments that has worked on the Red John case over the years to collect all the evidences (mostly Carlton "Red John" Johnson, Rayborn and Puryer's files on the members of the network) and do all the necessary arrests, and when everything is done and dealt with, the number of arrests is over 200 people (and, for Jane's great delight, one of the names on the list is the one of a certain Bret Styles)- murder, complicity in murder, corruption, blackmail, kidnappings, circumvention of incapable, prostitution, laundering of dirty money and so on, and even the truth about a man, Carlton Johnson, who had money, yes, but was just crazy, convicted in his idea of being send by a Greatest God to prepare the world for his coming, and obsessed with cleaning the word and teaching humans a lesson, average smart, his real talent was tricking people, blackmailing them into helping him, into serving him, or, in few cases, "brainwashing" them, like with the Visualize cult, where he sued to select few followers who were going to be part of his "inner circle" (a sort of smallest cult inside Visualize, where, apparently, the Word of God were spoken through Blake's poetic). Somehow, even evidences that connected Rayborn to Nevikov's disappearance, now a murder investigation, had been found.

More than a week after the encounter with Rayborn and Red John, at six in the morning, Patrick Jane finally rings the bell of the place Anne Donovan is currently living in- the home where she has grown up without a father in her life, the home she has shared with her mother first and her husband years later after her only parent's death.

Like his own home used to be, it's sunny and by the beach, and, differently from the place Donovan owns in Los Angeles, close to the beach as well, this is way smaller, and definitely more…domestic and romantic. If he has to be completely honest, Jane has to admit that this house remembers him more of some kind of fairytale. For a while, he wonders why Anne and Mike decided to move away from this little paradise for Los Angeles: the home where Bobby has been murdered is bigger, quite sure, but this place… it seems to scream to him peace, love and tranquility... all feelings he hasn't felt in a long time.

Until now, at least, now he can afford again this luxury, with Red John out of the picture.

"What the bloody…" When she opens the door, she is still dressed with just a pajama and an open robe, with messed bed hair, sleepy in both eyes and voice; Anne, the bondage still around her neck even if the wound wasn't that bad, stands still looking at the man in front of her- she is surprised of seeing Patrick Jane at her doorstep, that's for sure, but, what surprises, and breaks her heart a little, is seeing how he looks.

She doesn't think Patrick is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She has seen enough in her almost nine years on the job for saying that the man has been a walking, hidden, waiting for happening nervous breakdown.

Patrick is definitely beyond that point, now. He has reached the last stage of grieving, he has accepted what happened. And she isn't sure whatever it is good or not, considering that accepting something doesn't mean forgiving- and she knows this fact quite well.

Still, crying, she jumps in her arms, and, hugging her "brother" just as he does as well, she collapses into tears with him, whatever it is because in those days they've become closer than they thought possible and they somehow suffered the distance, or because they understand each other having gone through a similar pain, she doesn't know, and neither does Jane.

Same time later, how much they don't know for sure, they finally find themselves in the small, country kitchen, enjoying in silence a cup of earl grey, with Anne looking at her steaming cup and Jane busy looking around, standing sat in place while drinking the beverage.

Patrick knows this isn't his usual behavior, but, still, at the same time, it is. He may be a God with words, but only in few occasions, when, to him, they don't matter. He can, he could, talk for hours in front of an audience, but he struggled to find the courage to say even a simple "hi" to Angela. It's hard for him finding the strength to talk with Lisbon, it's hard talking with her, finding the right words, always been and he thinks that, until they'll have to see each other, it will keep being this way. And now, right in front of his "sister" he is struggling to find the words as well.

Anne, technically, is a stranger, it shouldn't be that hard for him to talk with her, but, at the same time, she isn't a stranger, because Anne Donovan, like it or not, shares his same blood, shares the same father with him. Alexander Jane probably never cared about none of them, not too much at least, but it's still something, a link Patrick never asked for, and one that, when little, Anne only dreamt about.

Looking at her, searching in her his same eyes, Patrick can't help but wonder if this woman is the only good thing his father left him in his life, the only good thing that come out of that sort of twisted thing they used to call life when they were both in the carnie.

"I'm leaving" Anne suddenly says without stopping to look at the now cold cup of tea "a friend of mine is asking me from a while to move to the NYPD crime lab, and I think it's finally time I do it. I'll start in two months time. I'm on leave until then"

He simply nods, without really looking at her, his arms on the table. He understands why she is doing this, and he doesn't blame her. The place where they are, is full of memories of a man that is now dead (a death that Anne always blamed herself for, still does, in part), while her place in Los Angeles, will she stay there, will always be where she wanted to build a family and never get to, and will always be full of memories of her encounter with Red John.

Besides, there's the Charlie Crews factor; the man has almost died for her, his wound on his shoulders provoked by Red John's knife have been so severe that he has lost a part, even if small, of muscular mobility. He is still crazy in love with her, even if, according to Anne herself, that's only something he wants, and not something he actually has. He knows, and Anne knows as well, that if she'll stay in Los Angeles, if she'll keep working with him, she'll eventually decided to accept his advances, she'll end up in his bed as his lover first and as his wife later, never leaving him out of gratitude (and pity as well, because that's how she is), ending both regretting the marriage and hating each other, both unhappy, captives of a relationship doomed to not work.

"I don't know what I'll do with my life now, but of one thing I'm sure, I'm not leaving the CBI. It's not what I want to do. It is home, where I want to stay" he almost whispers. Anne doesn't need to ask him to clarify the real reason he has decided to not leave, as he has swore so many times in the past. It's quite clear, from the way he is playing with his wedding band, that his thoughts are all concentrated on a member of the opposite sex, and if her intuition doesn't fail her, said member of the opposite sex should be a certain dark haired agent called Teresa Lisbon.

"Take a temporary leave. It's not like they'll tell you not to. To be honest, if your bosses are even just a bit like my ones, I expect them to put you on mandatory, considering what you went through in the last few weeks… well, years."

For the first time after she has opened him the door, their eyes meet, when Patrick searches for her face. Anne is sitting in front of him, at the other side of the table, crossed arms on the wooden surface, and looks at her blood with… tenderness, like she wasn't reading him, but she just knew him, like she was a wise, old woman giving her advice to her grandson.

She may be twelve years younger than him, she may looks a lot like him in few psychological aspects, but, somehow, his half sister is probably wiser than him, a way wiser. He doubt it's only because she has gone to normal schools and has been outside the carnie circuit (blessed her mother for "escaping" Alexander Jane while she was pregnant; otherwise, there'd be two wonnabe/fake psychs called Jane around the world). It's not because she is smart and clever… probably, Anne isn't even wiser than him _de facto_; she is simply wiser in this particular aspect.

She is wiser in giving advice to him, because, even if they share the same blood, she is still an outsider. Anne Donovan may not be objective when it comes to her life, can tend to do the runaway act a bit too much when things get too serious, but she is a "stranger" to his life. Hence, she can give advice, good advice, even.

And it scares him to death the fact that she may be right, that he'd need to live to find himself again, because… because he no longer knows what to do. Hell, he doesn't even knows what he is doing sitting in the kitchen of a person he hasn't meet until less than two weeks before, a person whose existence wasn't aware of, a person he wasn't planning on finding…and, if he doesn't know what to do with his life in the short run, figures in the long one.

"This… this wasn't programmed" he starts, gesticulating, fingers through his blonde curly hair (a heritance from his mother, Anne guessed when she learned Patrick Jane was her half-brother, since their father is a brown head, like her), looking lost and in confusion, almost in pain "I… I played all the possible scenarios thousands and thousands of times in my mind over the years, and it never come to this… to be… alive and free, with people who cares about me… and people I care about in return"

"That's why you should take a leave" she says him tenderly, taking his hands n her own, holding them, and forcing Patrick to look at her. "You need to figure out what to do with your life before starting to live again, Patrick. You can't allow yourself the luxury of rushing into things just because the main obstacle is now gone. You need to understand, first, what you want from your life, now that you can allow yourself to have a real life again."

"I'll never be a stage performer ever again, that's for sure. For me, from now on, only magic tricks to entertain kids" he says, smiling, a brief laughter, coming serious again after just few seconds, holding his sister's hands strongly, like for dear life, searching for his same eyes in her "But, seriously, what if Lisbon decides to move on without me? What if she decides I'm not the one?" Anne fights the urge to giggle, cry out in satisfaction, squirming or whatever she should be doing right now…because here he is, the almighty Patrick Jane, king of denial, finally admitting his true feelings for Teresa Lisbon!

Well, he hasn't exactly said that he is actually in love with her, but, still, it's pretty much the same, so…

"Patrick, I'll say this just one, and then I'll even deny having said it in the first place, but" she tells him uncomfortable, taking a big breath and trying to free herself from, at least, his gaze, knowing too well what Patrick's expression will be once her "speech" will be over "if it is meant to be, and I'm pretty sure it is, she'll wait, even for the rest of her life if necessary. Believe me, bro; she thinks you are her one. I May be a disaster when it comes to my personal love life, but when it concerns the others, I'm pretty good."

"She could always change her mind, she could find someone else, she could…"

"Ok, ok, stop it, will you?" she says, annoyed, ending his rambling "seriously, man, how many dates did she go to in the last few years?"

"Well, Teresa is a beautiful woman, and men are extremely interested in her. Men hit on her, you know? Are you seriously thinking that I'm the only one flirting with her? Because I'm not and…"

"Ok, ok, drop it, I was just asking you how many dates that didn't end as one night stands she had in the last few years, not the story of every date she has gone to!" She'd like to laugh and make a speech, because the face of horror as she mentions Lisbon's one night stands is pretty unbelievable. She'd say that Kurt was having that face as he was screaming "the horror, the horror" in Heart of darkness…

What the hell is he waiting for, to actually saying the words? Why can't he just say "I am in love with Lisbon" when it's so obvious to the whole world?

"I don't think she has been in a real relationship since we met. Of course, there has been Walter Mashburn, but it wasn't a relationship. He was interested in pursuing her after their one night stand, but Teresa wasn't, she knew he was just a filthy, bastard liar with no real interest in her, so she kept turning him down. Sometimes she still does, you know? Guess he'll have to accept that I'm the best available man for Teresa, from now on."

"Uh, and here I thought you were confused about what you wanted to do with the rest of your life…." As Patrick meets Anne's confused eyes, he can't help but smile of a real smile that reaches his eyes and makes them shine and free one of his hands for doing something he has done rarely in his life, pinching affectionately her cheek like she was a child.

"You know sis" he tells her with a term of endearment she wasn't think he would use so soon with her "you really gave good advice. You shouldn't doubt yourself as you do; it's not healthy for your self esteem. And everybody knows that if we Jane's have something we are good at, it's our too big for our own good self esteem!"

"I think you should have told Lisbon earlier that the only way to make you do something is telling you to do the opposite."

"Meh, she should have figured this out a long time ago, considering that I _always_ do the opposite of what she tells me to do."

She laughs again, and it feels so damn good, and she can't believe that, two weeks before, even less, she was desperate, cuddling herself in her bathroom.

She can't believe that this man, _her own brother_, has wormed his way into her heart so easily, in such a brief amount time, and she knows that, not so deep down, Patrick is doing the same, she knows that this is the reason why, even if she understands her reasons for leaving, he doesn't like them. He doesn't need to voice his emotions, and he doesn't like to, but he still does. He has just met her, but he doesn't want to waste time, not with Anne as well. He doesn't want that things unsaid could go in the way of their now hopefully partly shared life…

"I just found you, and here I am, already losing you… _she left me for, another lady. And it was New York, New York…" _Patrick sing-sings getting a perfect Lisbon eye-roll in response as he can't help but laugh, even if he indented being serious- not that Anne has even though, even for an instant, that her brother could actually be serious…

"Geez, yes, I'm seeing how _you're gonna miss me when I'm gone" _she sing-sings in the same way, getting not an eye-roll, but laughs, their shared laughs "seriously, I know that New York is quite… far away from California, but… you know, it doesn't mean that we'll have to be strangers, unless you want to, and I could even understand it. I mean, one day you were an only son, the next one, here she is, a grown up younger sister…"

"I'll never allow you to be a stranger, Anne, whatever it takes" he tells her smiling, but with teary eyes, kissing her hands and holding her, finally feeling again the feel of family after so long "and before your brother could made a compete fool of himself, go get dressed. I want to show you the place where your parents met, and I want to learn everything there is to know about you. Maybe I don't know what I'll do in the next few months, or where I'll be in few years time, but there's something I'm sure of. For the next few days, I'll be of my sister and of my sister only."

Even if he doesn't want to take the leave Anne has suggested, Patrick, at the end, decides for it, against his better judgment, but in the name of a superior good. Anne's leaving in less than two months, two months that her superiors have put her mandatory leave… two months, and then, it could be a whole life before he sees his little sister again, and he wants to make the best out of it.

Two weeks later, she can't stand him any longer, not when her "brother" keeps behaving like he did in the last few days.


	10. 9

Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just **_"write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed bu the light of reason..." _**(No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one fo the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...).

Mega, super, ultra Author's note...: I have the evil that men do on hiatus since this summer,I'm well aware of that. And I'm terribly late with the translation of my fanfics from English into Italian (I still have to understand how is possible that I think and write in English, and I'm pretty unable to make my stories made sense into Italian. Mah.), and I'm even terribly late in writing Blackdragon, if you know what I'm talking about... but here I am, with a new multichapter. the rating is T for security measures, even if I'm not sure I'll ever need it, and, just for the record:

this is dedicated to the talented PetiteJ, nice writer and amazing artist of the mentalist, and mostly JISBON, universe. this story took life a while ago via MSN, we ended up discussing this possibility, and I ended up telling her "I think I'll write soemthing about it, you know?"

Aanndd...fluffy and jisbon-ish!

* * *

CHAPTER 9

Two weeks later, she can't take it any longer.

"Anne, not that I'm not glad you want to get to know my surrogate family, but don't you think we should get to know each other better first?" he tells her confused as they leave the elevator at the SCU floor, Anne storming out of it, directly going to Lisbon's office without saying a word, Patrick looking confused at her back, frozen in the middle of the bullpen as he "notices" Anne slamming Lisbon's door, clearly irritated.

And, really, it doesn't make any sense, her being irritated with him. Why should she? He is been perfect! He has dedicated EVERY SECOND to her, he cooks for her, spends his whole time with her, drives her around, puts her things back in place (she is a bit messy), chooses the movie they look at in the evening, sitting on her NEW couch (she probably thinks it's a waste of money, since she is leaving anyway, but her old one was really terrible for his back. How was he supposed to sleep on that trap?)… She doesn't have to lift a finger, and this is how she thanks him?

"You have to do something about that man!" she whispers exasperated, pointing outside the door, in direction of where Patrick was standing (still does) in the bullpen, as Lisbon acknowledges her presence with quizzical eyes.

"You know, you aren't exactly the Jane I was looking for…" she tells Anne smirking, with sincere and happy green eyes, while the blue eyed detective falls on the chair in front of her new "friend"

"It's not that Patrick isn't nice or sweet or doesn't like me" she explains to Lisbon while sitting in front of her desk, her forehead on the hard material "the problem it's that he is too nice and too sweet and likes me too much! He is around me 27/7, and when I say 24/7, I really mean it! for the last two weeks, I've fallen asleep on the new couch he brought for himself to keep at my place around two am every night, just to wake at six because he is making me breakfast, and, by the way, he almost sent my kitchen on fire TWICE, with his experiments of nouvelle cuisine, because, apparently, since I'm his little sister and I've taken care of me all alone and on my own in the last 10 years or so, I'm no longer able to, and now I need him to do everything for me! My head hurts, my back aches, and he doesn't shout up! He is driving me crazy"

"Welcome to my world, Donovan. And imagine that, along what you feel, I have to save him for the troubles he put himself into as well!"

"You know, I have never thought I could understand those girls at school that rumbled about their over-protective brothers, hell, I envied them because they did have over-protective brothers, but now? Now I do!" It's a month since she has leaned that Patrick is her brother, and she already can no longer stands him, not 24/7 at least, and this is exactly what he is doing.

"Ok, I got, but remember Donovan, you owe me big time" she tells the younger woman smiling; she is behaving like Donovan was really a child, and not the adult cop with years of experience she is. "JANE!" she screams, and, like for magic, here he is, on her doorstep, Patrick Jane, 3 pieces suit clad, grinning and smiling so proud and satisfied with himself.

The complete opposite of Donovan, who starts feeling guilty and miserable (hence her runway act towards her brother's couch), and Lisbon, who's, as always, annoyed with him. "Did any of you wonderful women of my heart call, Lisbon dear?"

"Jane, sit here, I think we need to talk a little"

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm so glad you've finally decided to acknowledge your feelings for me! I knew you were just waiting for the right time to admit that you've fallen heard over heels for my charming personality and look!" he tell her, with humor, gaining a eye roll and an evil glare as silently sends him on her couch with a finger.

Meanwhile, outside, Anne is sitting on his couch, Buddha style (she may not be with Charlie any longer, but few things never change), waiting for Patrick to leave and hear how it went- she ash to admit she is a bit scared of Teresa Lisbon, sometimes.

She doesn't hear screams, but, as Patrick runs for his life outside the room, she sees a stapler, thrown by Lisbon, almost hitting his head, and from the way he ducks, she'd say he is quite a pro at this, like it is usual occurrence- something that Cho, Van Pelt and Rigsby's looks seem to suggest. _If this is not love, I don't know what it may be_ she thinks while avoiding laughing in front of her brother, who, in order to drive her madder, has decided that, from now on, he'll always ruffle her hair.

After the chat with Lisbon, he keeps asking her the most ridicules things, and tells her the serious one, like about Angela and Charlotte. He keeps reading her (which she hates, because it's what she is supposed to do). He keeps bringing her to the places important for him and for the both of them, like where her mother met their father exactly 30 years before, and he tells her what he remembers about Caroline Donovan, the woman his father loved for three months and then vanished, leaving him just a note asking for him to not look out for her. She tells him, when he talks about the past, that it wasn't his fault, and that, even if it was, he should forgive and forget, and move on with his life, just like his family would like to.

Only, he doesn't do it 24/7, and he even allows her to cook for herself, just once in a while though, and to sleep in an actual bed, and not only the couch where they spend their time talking.

Anne does pretty much the same. They talk about the most ridicule things. She tells him about Mike and how his partner, who was supposed to look after him, killed him in cold blood, and dared to tell her he'd help her out pretending someone else did it, just because… because he was in love with her and Mike had win her over, and because Robert was a bad man, a dirty cop, a person different from the one she had grown up with, the one she thought she knew. She reads Patrick whatever she finds herself able to (not so often and not as much as she'd like). She shows him pictures of her mother and their father, and pictures of her youth. She brings him in the places she knows, the places important for her, telling him what he doesn't know about her mother. He tells her that whatever happened in the past, it's not her fault, and even if it was, she should forgive and forget and move on with her life, just like her husband, and her mother, would like her to.

Before they could realize it, their time together is over, and they are at LAX, Jane, Donovan (now nicknamed Jane JR by Rigsby and Cho) and Lisbon, who has turned in a (sort of) best friend at a scary velocity, waiting for Anne's plane to be called, waiting for her to leave, to move away, to move on.

Anne feels rather… uneasy, as she waits to leave, and sees Lisbon enjoying the view, like Jane harassing someone else was a rather nice thing to witness, for once.

Well, Anne, hugged (bear hugged) strongly and firmly by her brother, his head in the crock of neck like to never let it go of her, is definitely not enjoying this.

This way, she'll end up losing her plane, if he keeps this up…

"Pa…Patrick, I'm just moving, in the same country. I'm not going to stay on Mars…"

"Meh… Let me enjoy it while I can, woman. From now on, it will be a miracle if we'll see each other once or twice a year."

"Patrick, please, you are squeezing the life out of me… could you…" she says, serious, almost feeling her ribs making not nice sounds, while, at Jane's back, Lisbon can't help but giggles, ecstatic, and, on her skin, Anne can feel her brother smiling at the lovely and loved sound, something, she is sure, he never thought he could hear again, was supposed to hear again, was worthy hearing it again.

"Patrick, you're going to join me on Christmas in few months time. You'll see, the time apart we'll pass quicker than what you think" Anne tells him as she finally convinces Jane to let it go of her poor ribs, and Lisbon…

Teresa really doesn't know what she is supposed to feel. On one part, she wants to laugh because this is just too funny; on the other side she feels her eyes getting teary because of the scene itself. Of course, it's funny seeing Detective Anne Donovan being held do fiercely by Jane, but on the other side… on the other side, she can also sees a side of Jane she has always imagined but never before seen. And, she has to admit, over protective Jane, the family man, is rather… enjoyable. And if he behaves this way with a sister he didn't know until three months prior, what he would do with a family of his own, a wife and children?

Patrick Jane isn't only sexy, handsome, charming, funny and smart (when he wants to be). Patrick Jane is actually (still) husband and father material… _He is good husband material. I wonder how I'd feel, being married with him… spending all my time with him… and making love to him… I bet he is amazing under the… No, no, no, I just didn't think about this! I so didn't think about how good Patrick Jane may be in bed!_

"Are you all right, Lisbon? Do you want Patrick to bring you back home? I'm sure he'll not mind, I know I'll not, right, _Pat?_" Anne asks her "friend" with a bit of malice in her voice, grinning, noticing the flushed cheeks and the dreamy look, probably side effect of the close proximity of none other than Patrick Jane to the female agent. Deep down, both women hope (Anne) and fear (Lisbon) that Jane will notice it, and will be caught by the enlightenment, exclaiming something in the line of "I know why she is so red! You just caught her day dreaming sordid dreams of her in my company in bed!"

But he doesn't. Instead, he prefers to "hit" his sister… "Meh, you're just scared that I could hypnotize or charm my way into your flight, and never, ever again leave your side, sis" he tells her, sweetly, laughing, while ruffling her hair when, finally, her flight is called by the speakers. "I'm really gonna miss you, Annie. Just, remember that, whenever you need something or someone…"

"You're here, I know. I'll miss you too, all of you." She tells them, and then whispers few words to Patrick and Patrick only, embracing him, giving him a quick kiss on the forehead while letting something fall in the pocket of his vest "You need it more than I do. Just, don't run, but don't lose time either, ok? Don't waste it, and don't over think too much. Find your balance, and everything will be well"

_Sis, your relationship with Zen master Charlie Crews may have been short lived and one of the worst mistakes of your life, but it definitely lasted too much, if he turned you into…this._

Few minutes later, Jane and Lisbon are standing side by side looking at the plane, now up in the sky, both a bit unsure of what to do. And it's weird, especially for him. He has always been good with words, good with his moves, and now… he is at loss of both of them, until he reaches into his pocket for whatever Anne left him, and when he sees what it is, and he understands what it means, he can't help but smile of a little smile…

It's the chain Anne had around her neck, the one where both her wedding band and engagement ring were. And she has left it to him. _You need it more than I do _she has told him just minutes before, and damn, she was right.

No wonder, though. She is his sister, after all, and DNA doesn't lie. Besides, he is always right, and he has told her she is smart and very good at giving advices (following it is another pair of shoes. After all, like he has already said, she is his sister. She can give advices, but she never follows it, just like he does). So, smirking, he does it- follow Anne's advice, sort of.

Smirking, he puts an arm around Lisbon's shoulders, and drives her outside the airport, towards his little blue Citroen. "So, Lisbon, tell me, what about dinner? I know this amazing little place here in Los Angeles… I've never tried it first hand, but Annie dearest really recommends it…"

"I don't know, I'm not really that hungry… besides, I'm tired and I'd really like to go home… and it's seven hours by car!" she tells him, turning up her nose, but still, allowing her head to fall on his shoulder as they walk side by side.

"They make the most fabulous soft cheesecakes with chocolate, coffee and strawberries…" he goes on, looking at her in the eyes, tempting her with one of her few weaknesses- actually, both the weaknesses she has, his person and strawberries, and, even if she keeps turning up her nose, he can see she is tempted and is going to give up, thanks to the light in her eyes and her (marvelous, but he isn't ready to admit it yet) smile "C'mon, woman, they have an incredible view from the terrace… it is right before the seaside. You can hear the waves and the seagulls; you can breathe the salty air and feel the splashes of water on your skin, and, at night, they always turn on the candles on the sand and on the tables, no other source of light…the effect takes your breath away…"

"I don't know, it sounds a bit too romantic for an informal meal between friends, Jane." she says, smiling on the skin of his neck, enjoying how they've come back to what they once used to be, before Red John got too close to them, and the only thing he can thinks of is that he never meant for it to be either informal or between friends "what happened to you, not seducing me over a meal because it was sophomoric?"

"I've never said anything about seducing you, Lisbon. But if this is what your dirty little perverted mind wants, I'll be glad to oblige, for once"

"Yeah, sure, like I don't have enough of you as it is."

"Well, in this case, since you don't want to be seduced, no funny business, I promise!"

"Ah, sure… That's one of those scout promises you always make and you never maintain because you've never been a scout in the first place!"

"But I've been a wolf in one of my previous life! I swear!" he says making his best howling sound, making Teresa erupts in giggles, causing Jane to tighten his grip on her, prisoner of happiness and… yes, now he can REALLY admits it to himself, he can actually say the word… love.

He is in love with Teresa, his Teresa, the reason he still wakes up in the morning, his last though of the day, his first though in the morning, his constant dream, his best friend, his confident, the only person he has always really trusts (with few exceptions made only in order to protect her), the one who stopped him from turning into a cold-blood killer, the one who taught him, and is still teaching him, to love again. And, eventually, he'll tell her, he knows it, he reflects as he plays unconsciously with the chain in his pocket. He just doesn't know how yet, and he knows it'll have to be… spectacular, breath-taking, unthinkable for anyone else but him and unique. Because HIS Lisbon needs to know that he is serious about it, about them, and that he is in for the long run.


	11. Epilogue

Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just **_"write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed bu the light of reason..." _**(No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one fo the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...).

Mega, super, ultra Author's note...: I have the evil that men do on hiatus since this summer,I'm well aware of that. And I'm terribly late with the translation of my fanfics from English into Italian (I still have to understand how is possible that I think and write in English, and I'm pretty unable to make my stories made sense into Italian. Mah.), and I'm even terribly late in writing Blackdragon, if you know what I'm talking about... but here I am, with a new multichapter. the rating is T for security measures, even if I'm not sure I'll ever need it, and, just for the record:

this is dedicated to the talented PetiteJ, nice writer and amazing artist of the mentalist, and mostly JISBON, universe. this story took life a while ago via MSN, we ended up discussing this possibility, and I ended up telling her "I think I'll write soemthing about it, you know?"

Anyway, it's finally the end... I'm not going to lie to you, sometimes, writing this story was, well, hell. It hasn't been as easy as I thought, especially because tend to go in directions different from the ones I wnat them to go. So, like Charlie Crews went from being just a special guest star in a couple of scenes to co-characters (so, I guess I should have put this on teh cross-over section, but, really, I wasn't planning for it for being such a huge cross-over), so the story went to other places. the only thing I knew I was going to do? The jisbon part-because I suck at Jisbon romance. (and yes, I couldn't resist, so I have to nominee Richard Castle. and the Castle tv show, and yes, there's Detective Kevin Ryan as well, which I don't own, here. Kill me, I so love that show!)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, and will let me know, in due time, what you think about it. untill then, HAPPY CHRISTMAS!d

* * *

EPILOGUE

_New York City, a loft in the Village, few months later_

From balcony of the loft in the Village of one of her new found Yorkers friends, Anne is mindlessly looking at the streets and at the landscape of skyscrapers in the distance, few buildings from Manhattan that she has learnt to know well very visible in the distance, with every light turned on like it was Christmas, like life never ceased to exist there.

She should be inside celebrating, she should be inside being happy, and happy she is, but she can't help but think and reflect while nervously tipping her fingers on the iron balustrade… a movement that' stopped by ha male hand that grabs hers and hits her with humor, smiling in both voice and face.

"Anne, you're making me more nervous than what I usually am" Patrick says, taking her left hand in his one and studying it. It's been a short while since he has met her, it's been a short, but still long, while since he has last seen her, and today more than the day he saw her leaving on a plane, he feels like he is losing her.

"You were great in the marriage as well, Patrick, and you were a good parent. I don't want you to doubt it, never" she says, playing as well with his empty left hand, skimming over the tan line on the wedding ring, and smiling at the gesture.

_The ring's gone, not from his persona but from his hand only, but it's still a step forward. _

"Have you told her?" she suddenly asks, a bit unsure, biting a bit her lips. The real problem isn't the question or the answer, but Patrick's reaction to said answer.

"Meh, we haven't said any words out loud, but…" he scrolls his shoulders, and, looking in the same void Anne was looking in, he takes a big breath, running a hand in his curls "I'm not sure it's time yet. Johnson dies just few months ago, and…there are been so much more in the last few months…I'm not sure I can handle everything at the same time!"

By that, Anne knows what he means, since a good part of what Patrick went trough she went through as well. In the last couple of months, Anne met in the Hamptons, for the first time, through her half-brother, her father Alexander Jane, and learnt a couple of things about him and his relationship with her mother and her…

Apparently, when Caroline left him, good old Alex was aware of the fact that his "girlfriend" was with child. When she left him, he understood, even if he didn't like it, and did his best to, at least, check from time to time on the kid he never thought about having. (Patrick laughed at this, and, once alone with Anne, commented that the only reason Alex regretted letting them go was that he had lost the opportunity to have someone looking after him and his things, Caroline, and another child to exploit, her). He even showed them his will, where both the "children" were mentioned, and, while trying to casually talking, Alexander commented on how he was missing his late lawyer, the one who had written the will, since he was the only one able to "understand me completely, and put me out of danger and my misery", and a couple of cross-references showed them that they guy was part of the network, thus solving another little mystery, another piece of the puzzle.

Still, after that time, either of them tried to contact the other. Patrick kept talking with Anne and vice versa, neither of them tried to contact the father and the same went for the old man. As she had said, it was a bit too much, in so little time.

And then, _this _happened… meeting the real Mr. Right, on the same day she come for the first time to work, Kevin Ryan, profession detective ("Sis, I've always knew you have a thing for detectives…")who, after four days, at the end of their first case together, asked her out.

She had told him no, of course, and done the same every time he had asked her out again, until, in her second months on the job, one day she was particularly tired, she snapped, and shouted at him everything there was to know about her, good and bad things, hoping to convince him to give up. His answer shocked the hell out of her, and made her almost crying.

"You think I don't know? I know you, Donovan, I understand you. And all these things… those are the reason I like you so much, that I liked you right from the start. All that you are, it just makes me want you even more" he had told her with a sad smile, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving "her" lab.

Two sleepless days later, she had been the one going to his desk, and, leaning on it, casually saying "Me, you, dinner, at eight at Carlo's. I'm expecting for you to come and get me at my place. That's the address. See you at half past seven. You're going to have just one chance with me, screw this and you are done."

And now, three months later that dinner, five months later her arrival in New York, she is standing on the balcony of a loft in the Village, with a knee-length Bourgogne cocktail dress and black high heels, on her wedding day….

"Anne, wearing white isn't sophomoric, it's just tradition" Patrick tells her awakening Anne from her reverie.

"Wearing white at your own wedding IS sophomoric, first; second, the white wedding dress and the veil have both a traditional anthropological meaning that goes back to the Roman Empire. Both elements are connected to the PHYSICAL purity of the bride, and as Kevin knows and Mike before him as well, I'm everything but physically pure."

"Ugh, I so didn't need this image of you…" Patrick comments with laughter and a smile, teasing her.

"And, anyway, the white isn't even the universally recognized color of weddings. Did you know that in Japan the white dress is the one sued by the one who are mourning a lost relative? Besides, as Lisbon always points out, we are Jane's. We never follow the rules, because, seriously, where's the fun in that?" she smiles, and gently takes her brother's arm, coming back inside, whispering to him with an air of conspiracy "Now, even Teresa understands why I've asked, of all the people Kevin and I know, to have you two as best man and maid of honor, even if my devoted husband barely knows you. I know it, she knows it, and you know it. AND you both have feelings for each other. AND you are both well aware of this fact. Now, just a stupid question, really, but, what do you think you are doing, brother dearest?"

"C'mon Anne, we haven't really even properly dated. I mean, just because the others thinks of us like an item, and with others I mean _you_, it doesn't mean that we are an item!"

Of course, Anne knows otherwise, or, at least, the versions she keeps hearing are quite different from this one. According to Grace Van Pelt, whom she sometimes talks to over the phone, there's definitely something romantic going on between the two of them (but, of course, the recently engaged and two months pregnant with Wayne Rigsby's child, still on her "old" team like her boyfriend as well, Grace is too romantic to think otherwise). What Teresa, her recently discovered BFF, well; she is more… complicated to understand. According to the permanently on the verge of a lovesick nervous breakdown Lisbon, she and Patrick may or may not be dating. If, by dating, it's considered sharing ALONE various meals over the day, often in cozy and romantic restaurants, spending every waking moment together, both at work and at home (her place), cooking various meals together (blushing or ginning every time the hands accidentally touch), cuddle together on the couch in various states of (un)dressings, sleeping (platonically, but still with more skin on display then fabric and with half naked limbs interlaced) together IN BED, walking hand in hand more often than they care to admit, and giving each other pecks (just that, pecks, not real kisses… ok, few kisses as well) on the lips… well, if this is dating, according to Teresa they MAY BE dating.

"To quote you, Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

"Sometimes I wonder if it's with me or Lisbon that you talk too much with!"

"Oh, I don't know, it can't be that much, between duty hours, and Kevin, and Rick. Did I tell you about Rick? Oh, I have to introduce you two! He'll love you! I think you've seen him; it's the owner of the place. He is the writer, Richard Edgar Castle, you know? He is so cute! Not the "I'd jump his bones" kind of cute, but the teddy bears kind of cute. Actually, I think that I find him cute because he remembers me a bit of you. He is an immature forty years old, petulant, obsessive, trouble makers, unable to shout up and stay out of danger who kind of consulting for Kevin's unit, and, guess what? He and the chief of the Unit, detective Kate Beckett, are crazy in love! Actually, now that I think about it, there's a difference. Rick used to be a serial monogamist, while you… you strike me more like a priest, or even better, a monk"

"I really wonder why you like him so much, since he never, ever shouts up" he smirks, trying to mess with her hair but stopped by Lisbon, who interferes as soon as they enter into the room, at the side of the man who Patrick has nicknamed "Detective Donovan", almost certain that it's his little sister that should wear the pants in the relationship.

"Jane, how many times do I have to tell you to let her live? Your sister ISN'T a toy. It's something people usually understands around the age of five or six"

"Meh, evidently, woman, even if you always claim that I'M a five years old at heart, I'm so much younger than that!"

"You know, it's in moments like this one that I suddenly remember that you aren't the smart, brilliant, classy and charming man everyone thinks you are, but just a demented idiot." She says giving him a light squeeze of the cheek, like he was a child and her his wise mother.

"But, sweetheart, you are crazy in love with this demented idiot" he tells her, smiling, and all Teresa she can give as an answer is a blushing, a low and shy voice, bitten lips and a marvelous smile as she takes his left in her own hands, looking at the empty ring finger.

"Yes, I guess that I do love you"

"Kevin, sweetheart, I think the photographer is waiting for us!" Anne says taking him for the arm and trying to bring him away from Teresa and Patrick, both still silent after her not totally wanted declaration.

"Uh, no, I think we just talked with him, he said he wanted to take a couple of shoots of the guests first and then…"

"Kevin, sweetheart" she says with a fake sweet tone, indicating just a little with her head the scene taking place at their side "the photographer. He is waiting."

Ryan, brown head with blue eyes, a bit older than Annie herself, finally notices the scene, and… "Oh, yes, right! He asked us if he could make pout pictures first, to let us free! He doesn't want for us to lose out plane, he is so nice!"

"Weren't you going to go on your honeymoon next month because you are supposed to testify in an important trial concerning a serial killer in a couple of days?" While Patrick talks with Kevin, Anne wonders of the man sees her rolling her eyes and almost covering them with an hand for avoiding such a spectacle; the man is really something, as smart as anyone else when it comes to solving crimes, but put Patrick Jane in a personal situation, and he'll be completely oblivious "I thought Anne said something about how this guy almost killed you and your partner?" Like she said, he is really something. Or maybe, if she looks a bit closer into his eyes, maybe she could see…

_Oh my God… _Anne would like to laugh because she is almost 100% positive that the glint she is seeing in her brother's eyes is a mix of hope and fear… _Uh, and here I thought he was stage performer…. And a grown up man like him, used to catch the most bastards of all the bastards is actually scared of remaining alone with Teresa Lisbon because there's a slight possibility she had been sarcastic? _

"Now, I'd say my lovely husband and me should go to take the first dance together" Anne says as she grins at both Lisbon and Jane, still hand in hand, looking now at her quizzically, now at each other shyly "While the two of you could keep on this nice staring and silent contest, ok? Good"

"Anne? C'mon sis, wait, I think you should save the first dance for the dominant male of your family! Annie, c'mon!" he tries to stop her, but the only answers he gets from Anne is a bye, bye with her hands, and a grin, like to encourage him, so, he finally decides to turn to Lisbon again, his left hand still in hers, her eyes still busy studying the empty spot, until, as he is massaging the back of his neck while looking at their interlaced fingers, the music starts, the first dance…

And Teresa smiles, happy, enjoying, at closed eyes, the memory that said song brings to her, a couples of years prior, while humming it at loud. And, God, if only she could have her eyes open, if only she could see the look of Adoration on Patrick, his gigantic and sincere smile…

"Care to dance, dear?" he whispers getting closer and closer to her, taking her in his arms for the slow dance even before she could actually nod her head in positive answer "I hope that…."

"I'm thinking about the reunion" she says, beating Jane, for once, at his own game, smiling while her head is on his shoulder, and her form is pressed against his strong and muscular body "so, relax. Every time I listen to this song, I think about that time, when we danced together."

"And here I thought that when you heard this song you thought only to this cold hearted guy you worshipped from afar…" he tells her, joking, spinning her around, and hearing the most beautiful sound of the world as he takes her back in his arms pressed against his chest, giggles that are soon, though, eliminated in favor of a loud breathing, in and out, and words whispered with sadness, regret and melancholy.

"No, when I hear this song… I think about that time, and I ask myself if you… if you felt my breathing dying into my throat, and my heartbeats accelerating, if you felt how strong my hold on you was… I ask myself if, even back then, you knew that I…."

He hushes her with two fingers on her lips, smiling of a sad smile, a smile of regrets because of the time he lost "I was blind" he starts "you've been my light in the darkness. You've been my guide. You've been my road, my reason to live, and my truth. You've been all those things" he pauses, and, taking her for the chin, forces Lisbon to look into his eyes "and you still are."

"Jane, I…"

Again he silences her; again he shushes her with a finger. "There's no need for words, Teresa dear, just, dance with me, will you?"

"But we are already dancing, _Patrick" _She says, testing the sound of his name on her tongue, repeating it few times with eyes in the void, concentrated until he breaks the magic laughing at loud, his face buried into her dark curls.

"You're so testing in your mind how my surname goes along with your given name!" and then, he sing-sings, still laughing, waiting for the moment she'll throw something at him (_a heel, maybe, considering that there's no stapler around, or she could take one of the plates….)_

"_Teresa Lisbon has a crush on Patrick Jane, Teresa Lisbon has a crush on Patrick Jan; strictly on the book senior agent Teresa Lisbon has a huge crush for her smart and breath-taking astonishing solving cases machine of a consultant called Patrick Jane…"_

"Oh, hush, Patrick, I don't have a crush on you!" she tells him, a bit annoyed, and, taking him for the collar of his shirt, she throws him against her for a mind-blowing, lips-on-lips, slow, sensual, battling kiss. "I'm in love with you, and you better keep in mind who'll wear the pants in our relationship!" she tells him, a bit dreamy, her fingers still busy playing with his curls, running along his scalp.

"Yes ma'am" he answers her, taking her in for another kiss, dancing together to the notes of a song that's already over, not carrying about what the others are thinking about or will say, not thinking about consequences, not carrying about them, not after everything they've been through.

"Besides, I'd never change my surname!" she tells him once they part briefly for air.

"Do you want to bet that I'll change your mind, and even sooner than you think?" he smirks, grinning, their foreheads and noses touching.

"I've learned a long time ago to never bet with you, Patrick" she tells him maliciously, getting closer for another kiss "because, you always wing, and whatever you want, you get it."

"Yes, at the end, I got the girl…" and he kisses her again, like it was the first time.

It will always be like the first time for them, even after years and years.


End file.
